Many people are surprised to learn that Social Security hearings are not held in courthouses. This is because Social Security is an “administrative agency” not a judicial agency – in other words Social Security is part of the executive branch of government not the judicial branch.
Because of this, Social Security hearings are much more informal than what you might see at a state or federal court hearing. Technically, when we present our case, we are making an argument to a representative of the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
There are four (4) Atlanta area hearing offices called “Offices of Disability and Review” or ODAR:
- Downtown Atlanta
- Atlanta North
- Marietta
- Covington
ODARs used to be called OHA (Office of Hearing and Appeal) but presumably some committee (maybe the same one that came
up with the boneheaded decision to delete the judges’ names from the hearing notices) decided that the hearing offices needed a new acronym
The downtown Atlanta ODAR is located on the 5th floor of the Marquis I Tower of the Peachtree Center Office tower. To the right is a picture of the outside of Peachtree Center. MARTA maintains a rail station at Peachtree Center – if you take the train, the Peachtree Center stop is “N1” – one stop north of 5 Points on the north-south line.
The Atlanta North ODAR is located at 3105 Clairmont Rd., west of the I-85/Clairmont Rd. exit. If you take I-85, exit Clairmont Rd. and head west towards Buford Highway, and not east towards the VA Hospital. The 3105 Building is located behind an Extended Stay Motel.
The Marietta ODAR is a video hearing only office and is located at the back of the existing Social Security office at 1415 Franklin Rd., next to a Pep Boys.
The Covington ODAR is the newest office to open. It is located at 10155 Eagle Dr. in Covington, in a fairly new office building. You may find that 10155 Eagle Dr. does not yet appear in the Mapquest or Yahoo Maps database and the building is set back from the street, so give yourself plenty of time to find it if you have a hearing there.
There are a number of other differences between Social Security hearing offices and judicial courts, which I will discuss in a later post but for now, just remember that when you come to your hearing, you will be looking for an office building and not a traditional courthouse.