Hopefully, he'll be remanded to another ALJ.

The type of lawsuit that could do something about an ALJ could take years. Someone needs to do something about both ends of the spectrum--those that approve too many, and those that approve too few. It's just seems like that's a huge undertaking for someone that's struggling already...

On a forum at another website, a former ALJ clerk that wrote the decisions, performed much of the fact checking, and whose opinion was even factored into approvals and denials, wasn't even familiar with the grid rules. How scary is that??? And she bragged that the way she vaguely wrote them, meant they were upheld by the Appeal's Council. Mama Mia!

Bret obviously pulled the short straw with regards to getting this ALJ. None of us can say that an unbiased ALJ would have approved him though.

Bret, if you don't mind my asking, did the Vocational Expert testify that you were unable to perform any prior work (step 4) as well as any type of work (step 5)?