Laurie Wardell, Valparaiso in , Indiana Odar Office, Administrative Law Judge
For the 2015 *fiscal year, Judge Laurie Wardell has disposed 98 cases at the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) in CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Out of those 98 dispostions, 15 were dismissed, 39 were approved and 44 were denied. This means that the percentage of depositions that Judge Laurie Wardell has approved in CHICAGO for the 2015 fiscal year is 16%. The information below for Judge Laurie Wardell was last updated on 12/01/2022.
AVERAGE STATISTICS
| Office | *Fiscal Year | Total Depositions | Total Decisions | Total Denials | Total Awards | Cases Dismissed | Cases Approved | Cases Denied |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VALPARAISO IN | 2015 | 98 | 83 | 44 | 39 | 15% | 40% | 45% |
| CHICAGO | 2016 | 311 | 227 | 143 | 84 | 27% | 27% | 46% |
| VALPARAISO IN | 2016 | 122 | 108 | 72 | 36 | 11% | 30% | 59% |
| CHICAGO | 2017 | 442 | 348 | 201 | 147 | 21% | 33% | 45% |
| CHICAGO | 2018 | 200 | 168 | 113 | 55 | 16% | 28% | 57% |
| CHICAGO | 2019 | 417 | 354 | 227 | 127 | 15% | 30% | 54% |
| CHICAGO | 2020 | 319 | 269 | 139 | 130 | 16% | 41% | 44% |
AVERAGE TIME
| Dismissed | Approved | Denied | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laurie Wardell | No Stats for FY2020 | ||
| All ALJs in CHICAGO | 19% | 43% | 38% |
| All ALJs in ILLINOIS | 17% | 43% | 40% |
| All ALJs in the Nation | 18% | 45% | 38% |
9 Comments
Judge Wardell concluded that I was unable to perform any past relevant work yet the vocational expert gave me three examples with two of them (dinning room attendant and sandwich maker) being past work I did part-time in college 20 years ago. Does it make sense to you?
This ALJ is mentally ill. The vocational expert classified the claimant’s past relevant work as light and sedentary. The ALJ also confirmed the claimant was unable to perform any past relevant work. So the logic conclusion should be the claimant couldn’t even perform sedentary work. Yet this ALJ still refused to approve the case and wanted to drag the claimant into the labor force doing heavy weight lifting work instead. It is like asking people who could barely walk to run instead.
I have never met a more unprofessional judge in my entire life. First, the hearing started late with no file to preview before the hearing even though I arrived an hour earlier. The ALJ stated there were only medical records in file. The ALJ then started to question based solely on her biased assessment of the evidence and pressured me for answers even after repeatedly disagreement on facts. She did not call me a liar in front of my face but questioned about my motive for filing for disability after the hearing. I was angry and very upset after the hearing because she was rude and with very little knowledge about my medical records. An ALJ may disagree with the level of severity of any physical and or mental condition, and may not think a person is disabled, but that is what the written decision is for. She made negative statements during the hearing before even had a chance to listened to me. An ALJ’s job during the hearing is to review the evidence, listen to the testimony, act accordingly and professionally, and when all is evaluated to come to a decision. This ALJ will definitely ignore all the evidence in order to willfully draw her biased decision. She would not even bother to check and verify any obvious errors during and after hearing. I wondered how she got this job as she seems unfit for the position. I have empathy for anyone who gets this judge with close to 60% denial rate on record.
This ALJ noticed I was not on any medication but failed to even mention that I was presented to ER. Ignored all evidences associated with that ER visit. She also ignored that I was took to ER after lost my conscious in public. Despite all the ER visits with complaints of chronic fatigue and memory loss, ALJ Wardell still strongly believed that I was happy most of the time and stated that I was looking forward to getting disability and enjoying travel. She has had a consistent tendency to ignore all the tears I had, all the pain I suffered, and all the events I went through. She even heartlessly suggested and cited that I did not need to be admitted to ER at least on one occasion. The ALJ ignored all past medical history, then cited a lack of medical evidence made it impossible to draw her conclusion. Maybe she was reading the wrong medical notes and focused only on positive not negative symptoms. The most ironic part is she repeatedly and shamelessly stated that she had given me the benefit of a full and fair adjudication on my claim throughout the entire process. By literally lying about my medical conditions???
This ALJ Wardell and or its writer enjoyed to write fair tales. I made less than $2000 in 3 weeks once in a few years. It turned out in the Judge’s hearing decision letter as I earned $30,000 suddenly. I registered a shell company to keep track of 401K retirement funds I legally borrowed from Fidelity to pay bills. It turned out in the Judge’s decision letter that it appeared I had several shell companies I renewed yearly and I was trying to hide money. I was not dead for sure but I rarely get out of the bed or door for years. However, you are not disabled in this ALJ’s eyes if you could still cook, eat, walk, drive and travel at all by any chance. Even the fact that I rarely visit my family becomes a big issue. Once every several years up to 10 years was still too frequent by this Judge’s common sense. I can only pray for God’s blessings for my appeal …
Judge Laurie Wardell is ******. I was very sick and went to Emergency Rooms more than a dozen times within a year. I could barely lift 25 lbs even when I was not sick, yet she demanded me to lift 50 lbs for work. No kidding.
Very unkind person I have ever met in this life. Although she pretend to be fair and I tried to be calm throughout the hearing process, I believe she was extremely mean and could care less about if I live or die. Avoid her if you could.
Judge Wardell seems like to cherry pick on medical records with a great focus on remarkable errors while ignoring most facts. She reads medical records with great bias and chance to deny.
Judge Wardell made a decision on my case, it seems without reading or understanding the medical records provided. If you have this judge, be prepared to be called a liar, despite having objective evidence to support your claim.