Amanda Arnold Sansone
How Judge Sansone decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Social Security medical-opinion regulations (revised, claims filed on/after 2017-03-27): treats a treating provider's bare recommendation (e.g. 'elevate your legs') as NOT a 'medical opinion' the ALJ must articulate weight for, because it is a treatment note rather than a function-by-function judgment about what the claimant can still do. A claimant relying on such notes, without a true functional opinion stating frequency/duration, will not unseat the RFC.
“the treatment recommendation does not constitute a 'medical opinion' as contemplated by the revised Social Security Regulations governing the articulation of medical opinions for claims filed on or after March 27, 2017.”
Substantial-evidence deference: declines to reweigh the record or substitute judgment for the Commissioner's, affirming the RFC and the ALJ's reliance on vocational-expert testimony where supported, 'even if the evidence preponderates against the decision.' An argument that the record 'could support a different RFC determination' is outside the scope of review.
“Ms. Estrada Fontanez's argument here is, in essence, that there is evidence in the record that could support a different RFC determination. This is outside of the scope of this court's review.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Social security appeal N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the reasons stated, the Commissioner's decision is AFFIRMED, and the Clerk is directed to enter judgment in favor of the Commissioner.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Caseload mix is descriptive, from search_dockets enumeration; no FJC IDB baseline available for this court/period.