Fwd: President's Newsletter - Special Edition
Dick Goodwin
From: Zahm, Marilyn <Marily...@ssa.gov>
Date: Tue, May 1, 2018 at 2:45 PM
Subject: President's Newsletter - Special Edition
To:
May 1, 2018
PRESIDENT’S NEWSLETTER
Unnecessary Termination of eBB
At a time when we continue to have a record backlog, the Agency is taking steps to remove a tool that a significant percentage of judges use. As a result, we will likely find that judges will be less productive and that fewer claimants will be served. This is a poor time to terminate eBB and it is completely unnecessary. Our suggestion on how to rectify this error is found at the end of this newsletter.
CALJ Nagle’s May 1, 2018 email on the “Replacement of the Electronic Bench book” does not explain everything that will be happening on June 30. While the agency is finally enhancing DWI beyond a “minimally viable product,” which is how the agency characterized the original release of DWI, with the features the Union requested, such as autosave, no modification of instructions by others, and age 18 redeterminations, it has turned eBB into less than a “minimally viable product.”
Beginning June 30, ALJs who use eBB will lose the ability to: (1) take individual file review notes; (2) attach their notes to exhibits; (3) sort notes by topic (e.g., SGA, opinions, etc.…); (4) use policy compliant opening statements; (5) use policy complaint scripts for claimant, other witness and ME testimony; and (6) add case specific questions or other information to the scripts. This decimation of eBB will negatively affect the productivity of the significant number of ALJs who continue to use it for case preparation and hearing notes.
For several months, we have had a situation that worked for those ALJs wanting a more simple tool like DWI and those wanting the more robust features of eBB. There was no reason to change this situation, especially since the new Case Analysis Tool that includes DWI is based on eBB. This means the features mentioned above could have just remained. Instead, after only consulting with three ALJs who do not use eBB, the agency removed them. Fortunately, there is no reason the agency cannot quickly bring them back. In fact, the “VE Testimony” script mentioned in Judge Nagle’s memo, which had been removed, was brought back in a matter of days after a couple members of the eBB cadre were finally consulted.
If you are an eBB user and want to continue to use its features, please make this known by sending an email to Marty Pillion. He will remove your name and forward the sanitized copy to Terrie Gruber, Pat Nagle and Joe Lopez. This will ensure that the individuals who can bring these features back know how many ALJs think it was a mistake to remove them.
In Solidarity,
Marilyn Zahm