When it comes to being awarded social security disability benefits in the state of Arkansas, successfully submitting the required information to support your claim is going to be the most important and most complicated aspect of your case. The Social Security Administration makes determinations based on the information you submit to them. At the present time, only 30.2% of initial AR social security disability claims are awarded, which is a little less than the national average of 32.1%. If you apply for disability benefits and your claim is denied, you can ask the SSA to reconsider the initial decision. Award rates are generally low at the initial appeals level. Only 8.1% of appeals on Arkansas SSD cases are awarded and 11.3% of SSD appeals are awarded nationally. For those who wish to appeal the decision further, they can ask to have their AR social security disability case heard by an Administrative Law Judge at a local ODAR hearing office. There are two ODAR hearing offices in the state of Arkansas – one is in Fort Smith, the other in Little Rock.
In the state of Arkansas, it takes, on average, 311 days to process a final appeal at the hearing level and cases are awarded 58.4% of the time. The average processing time at the hearing level nationwide is 349 days with a 58.3% award rate.
Between the two hearing offices, the award rates vary just slightly. The table below represents the approval rates at the Fort Smith and Little Rock ODAR hearing offices:
| Hearing Office | Approval Rate | Processing Time in Days |
| Fort Smith | 50.7% | 267 |
| Little Rock | 51.4% | 354 |
Twenty-four ALJs serve on Arkansas SSD cases. Thirteen judges serve in the Little Rock office while the other eleven judges serve the Fort Smith community. Your Arkansas social security disability attorney’s past experience successfully presenting disability cases before the ALJs can serve to help you win your Arkansas SSD case as well.
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Get in touch with an Arkansas social security disability attorney to schedule a free consultation on your SSD case. Just complete the free evaluation form on this site. You are under no obligation to retain the services of an attorney and you will never be charge a fee unless your attorney wins you disability case.
