Illinois.

Roughly 69,348 new disability claims are filed in Illinois each year. At a 20% retention rate and a conservative $6,900 fee per retained case, the addressable fee pool is approximately $96M annually.

Annual DDS intake

69,348

Initial claims / year

DDS approval

38.6%

Nat'l: 39.8%

Avg office wait

265 days

Nat'l hearing: 365 days

Fee pool (est.)

$96M

Annualized · retention × cap

01 · Bench

Top 5 ALJs by approval rate.

Judges currently on the bench in Illinois hearing offices, sorted by favorable decision rate. Use these to prioritize which office a case is assigned to, where permissible.

ALJ	Office	Approval	Decisions
Thrasher, Richard	NHC CHICAGO	92.9%	14
Pendola, Michael	ORLAND PARK	84.8%	223
Gruenburg, Dawn M	OAK PARK	84.4%	443
Contorer, Beth J	OAK PARK	80.9%	341
Paige, Melody	OAK PARK	79.1%	402

02 · Offices

Hearing-office timing.

Fastest

PEORIA239 days
OAK PARK256 days
OAK BROOK261 days

Slowest

NHC CHICAGO306 days
CHICAGO268 days
EVANSTON263 days

30-day pilot · no contract

Route 20 inbound inquiries through claimpros.ai.

Send 20 new inbound inquiries in Illinoisthrough the claimpros.ai inbound-triage agent for 30 days. Measured against the firm's baseline: time-to-first-response, consult show rate, and retained-case quality. No contract, no long commitment — just numbers.

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Methodology · Figures reflect SSA public data through the latest release. Fee pool estimates annualize DDS intake at a conservative 20% retention rate with a 75% cap hit on retained backpay — not a performance guarantee. Approval rates describe historical decisions, not likelihoods on individual cases.