What is ODAR?

The Office of Disability Adjudication and Review is most often referred to as ODAR. The office is responsible for holding hearings and making decisions to determine whether a claimant is eligible to receive disability benefits after they’ve been denied DDS.

ODAR only receives your case after both your initial application and your first appeal have been denied by the DDS. If you choose to appeal a second time, your case is sent to an ODAR office to be heard by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). First you’ll get a confirmation letter in the mail stating that your claim has been received, then you’ll receive an appointment letter that tells you where and when your hearing is scheduled to take place.

The ALJ’s job is to determine which claims need to be approved, and which should be denied. Although there are more than 1,000 ALJs across the country who work out of more than 100 ODAR offices, due to the large number of appeals, it can be a long wait to have a hearing with a judge.