Christian, I am so sorry that this has been such a difficult process for you. I can understand how you would lose hope at this point, but try to remember that is just letting the crappy judge 'win.' Fight ! Maybe with enough attention, this judges decisions will get looked at more closely......and he'll end up being the one in the gutter.

The above is incorrect, 98-99% of all cases sent to Falls Church are simply rubber stamped in favor of the ALJ, that translates to a success ratio of just 1% at appeals council!
Compassion has absolutely nothing to do with any stage of the SSDI process, or rather if it does it's the result of a mistake or an accident. Appeals council is simply a review of the technical aspects of the ALJ, thats it....

You cannot proceed directly to federal court, you must proceed through the administrative obstacles they've set in place as a discouragement to all applicants, only then may you take the bastards in front of an actual judge in a real courtroom! Of course first you must find a real attorney to accept your case, mine, who in the waiting room told me my case was strong, and that he'd take me all the way through the federal process is suddenly not available to talk with me regarding my denial!
No surprise there, my previous attorneys entire appeal to Falls Church quoted here for your benefit, "We disagree with the ALJs ruling!"

I'm so sorry for the bad decision. Please don't despair. Let your anger help you to find a reason to keep on fighting.

I have no reason to fight on, my claim has been denied, my insured status expired this past December, thus I cannot file a new claim, the attorney will no longer consult with me, clearly he lied about bringing my case further if needed.
These are the hard realities of this terrible process, most if not all of the attorneys are liars, the ALJs are not really judges, rather they are just employees of SSA with a really, really powerful union behind them! I filled out a job application yesterday at a local Walmart, my neck locked in position after about 30-minutes of messing around with their job app computer, a terrifying & painful experience I can assure you.
This is an event both of my Doctors warned the SSA of in both of their RFCs, yet the judge refused to give this any standing in his opinion, choosing rather the opinion of an SSA doctor who'd never examined me let alone even talked with me or my doctors!
The truth is that your application for SSDI depends exclusively on whether your presiding SSA employee liked his/her dinner, or had some other pleasurable experience the night before, or some such thing.
I almost broke my neck filling out a job application, a possibility the judge cited as particularly lacking in credibility even though a board certified neurologist and my internist alerted him to it in the RFCs they submitted....I went before this man and had absolutely, positively, not the slightest chance of success, his mind was made up long before I stood before him, he's turning down between 6 & 7 out every 10 that come before him in fiscal 2010, this was nothing more than an opportunity for this evil man to make a political statement....
SSDI approvals are largely dependent upon what region of the country you call home, don'd believe me? Look at the data released by SSA and see for yourselves.....

there are lawyers who will take a case to federal court. do some research, they are out there.

It sounds like your case was turned down for review by the Appeals Council, so you have to now file in the Federal Court. You can directly file because I have, I went from reconsideration to the Federal Court. That was a survivors case and that is a little easier than disability. Your just waiving your administrative rights. The Federal Court will look at your entire case and may send it back to the ALJ. I don't think you should give up. I've heard people win who have less disabilities than you. The Federal level is a civil lawsuit and doesn't have the policies of an administrative agency. You would use statutes and case law.
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/appeal...ml#time_limits

My first claim was turned down at AC, this latest was an entirely new claim, once again denied by an ALJ. The attorneys I've talked with since the unfavorable(not mine as he won't return my phone or email mesages)have assured me you may not proceed directly to federal court without first being subjected to the slow rigor mortis that is the AC!
People have won at AC, but not many, somewhere between 1-2% are even reviewed, of those perhaps 70% are remanded directly back to the creep who sent them there in the first place, and he/she usually denies the claim yet again on some new triviality.
Six years of denials could easily turn into 8-9 years of denials before even being afforded the opportunity to sue the SSA in a real court of law. In my case, it could end up being the better part of a decade of involvement with the process before recieving an ultimate decision from the federal district court of appeals or even the SCOTUS itself.

Wait I'm confused, you went to the appeals council, claim denied, and back to an ALJ and denied? If you were at the appeals council stage then why didn't your attorney go to the Federal Court? I think at this stage you have nothing to lose. Like you said that's actually where they use statutes and case law and not policy. IMO your attorney is wrong about proceeding to the Federal Courts, I have done it and read it somewhere but can't find it right now. I will keep looking though. Maybe your attorney is afraid to go to the Federal level because it's expensive and time consuming and if you lose he is stuck with all the expensive. It's just my opinion but you only have 60 days and need to make a decision.

ok Christian, here it is I found it.

(6) Expedited appeals process. At some time after your initial determination has been reviewed, if you have no dispute with our findings of fact and our application and interpretation of the controlling laws, but you believe that a part of the law is unconstitutional, you may use the expedited appeals process. This process permits you to go directly to a Federal district court so that the constitutional issue may be resolved.
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OP_Hom...5/405-0701.htm