Louisiana Social Security disability
Louisiana Disability Lawyers: Two of the Four Offices Deciding Your Claim Sit a Few Miles Apart, and the Capital Has Neither
Four Social Security hearing offices decide Louisiana disability claims. Two of them, New Orleans and Metairie, sit within a few miles of each other in one metro area. Baton Rouge, the state capital, has neither and is heard at Metairie, in the New Orleans suburbs.
The other two are Alexandria in the center of the state and Shreveport in the north. Louisiana's routing is worth reading before your notice arrives, because several assignments run against the map, and the office you expect may not be the office you get.
4
Hearing offices deciding Louisiana claims
2
Of them in greater New Orleans, none in Baton Rouge
No fee
Unless you win
Where your case is decided
Which Louisiana Hearing Office Decides Your Disability Claim?
Baton Rouge, the capital and the second largest city in the state, is heard at Metairie.
The office that hears your Louisiana case follows the Social Security field office serving your address, as SSA's hearing office locator lists it.
Four assignments catch people out. Baton Rouge, the capital and the second largest city in the state, is heard at Metairie. Lake Charles sits in the far southwest and is heard in New Orleans. Lafayette is heard in Alexandria rather than in New Orleans. Monroe, in the northeast, goes to Alexandria rather than to Shreveport.
Louisiana takes work in across two state lines and sends none out. Shreveport hears claims filed at Texarkana, which the locator files under Arkansas, and at Marshall in Texas. Alexandria hears claims filed at El Dorado, which the locator files under Louisiana. Wherever the file lands, a denial notice starts the same sixty-day clock.
The four offices
Every Office That Decides Louisiana Disability Claims
Hearing offices
4decide this state's claims
Service area lines name Social Security field offices rather than cities or parishes, which is how the assignment is actually made.
Four hearing offices decide Louisiana claims: Alexandria, Metairie, New Orleans and Shreveport. Shreveport also takes claims filed in Arkansas and Texas.
Every field office assignment and office address is on our hearing office routing page.
Average wait times change from month to month. Social Security publishes the average wait time for each hearing office in a monthly report, so check the office that takes your claim.
Before any judge sees it
Who Decides Louisiana Disability Claims Before a Judge Does
Social Security takes the application and decides the non-medical parts, then sends the file out for that review and takes it back.
At the application and reconsideration stages, a Louisiana state agency makes the medical decision for Social Security under Social Security's rules, gathering your records and applying the federal definition of disability to them. Social Security takes the application and decides the non-medical parts, then sends the file out for that review and takes it back.
The stage matters more than it looks, because a claim can be decided there without reaching a judge, and because the file a judge eventually reads is the one built during it. The office that will hold your hearing has no involvement at this point and does not yet know your case exists. Where you file is what connects the two.
What the office map actually tells you
Why Louisiana's Hearing Offices Cluster in One Corner of the State
Half of Louisiana's hearing offices are in greater New Orleans. New Orleans and Metairie are close enough that a claimant could pass one on the way to the other, and between them they cover the southeast, the capital region, and a stretch of the southwest running to the Texas line.
Alexandria and Shreveport carry everything else. Alexandria's service area alone runs from Lafayette and New Iberia in the south to Monroe and Ruston in the north, and across the border into Arkansas. That is a large territory handled from a city far smaller than New Orleans or Baton Rouge, and it is the reason so many central and southern Louisiana claimants find themselves assigned somewhere they did not expect.
None of that changes the standard applied to your file, and none of it is a disadvantage in itself. What it does mean is that a map is a poor guide to your hearing office in Louisiana, and that the answer is worth getting early rather than at the moment a notice arrives.
Cities we serve in Louisiana
Louisiana Cities We Serve
We represent claimants across Louisiana. The three cities below have their own pages. The hearing office for any address is on the routing page.
Your lawyer does not need a Louisiana license to represent you on a Social Security claim. Social Security's rule asks for an attorney in good standing who has the right to practice law before a court of a state, the District of Columbia, a U.S. territory or island possession, or a federal court, who is not disqualified or suspended from representing claimants, and whom no law prohibits from acting as a representative. How an out-of-state disability lawyer works.
Louisiana SSDI Questions: Hearing Offices, Routing and Appeals
Is there a hearing office in Baton Rouge?
No. The capital and second largest city in Louisiana has no hearing office of its own, and its claims are assigned to Metairie. There are four offices in the state, at Alexandria, Metairie, New Orleans and Shreveport, and two of those four are in the same metro area at the other end of the Baton Rouge to New Orleans corridor.
Why is my Baton Rouge claim heard in Metairie?
Because the Baton Rouge and Baton Rouge North field offices are assigned to the Metairie hearing office. Baton Rouge is the state capital and the second largest city in Louisiana and it has no hearing office of its own. Metairie's service area is built around Baton Rouge, Hammond, Bogalusa and Kenner, so in practice it functions as the Baton Rouge area office despite sitting in the New Orleans suburbs.
Lake Charles is in the southwest. Why is my case in New Orleans?
Because the Lake Charles and DeRidder field offices are assigned to the New Orleans hearing office. The assignment follows the field office rather than the drive, and southwest Louisiana is attached to New Orleans rather than to the center of the state.
Two Louisiana offices are in the same metro area. Is one of them faster?
It changes month to month. Social Security publishes the average wait for every hearing office in a monthly report. Even if one were reliably quicker that is not a reason Social Security would move a case, because the assignment follows your field office and a change of place turns on good cause rather than on speed.
Can I ask to be heard at the office closest to me?
Not by preference. The assignment follows your field office. You can object in writing to the place of your hearing, giving your reason and the place you ask for, and the administrative law judge decides whether there is good cause to change it. In Louisiana the office that hears you may not be the nearest one, but the rule is the same. What is worth your attention is the record the assigned office will read.
What happens after Louisiana denies my application?
A denial is a stage rather than a verdict. You have sixty days from the date you receive it to appeal, and Social Security assumes you received it five days after the date on the letter. The appeal goes back through the same state agency that issued the denial before it reaches a judge, which is why an appeal with nothing new attached gives the same agency the same file to read.
Denied in Louisiana? Let us look at it.
Free case review, no obligation. We respond within 3 business hours. We represent Louisiana claimants from our office in Lebanon, Tennessee, with consultations and hearings handled by phone or video. There is no Louisiana office and none is implied. Tell us where you filed and we will tell you which office your address routes to.