What I find when individuals have attempted to file on their own, and get it rejected, is the lack of preparing for the “long view.” Many people hear stories about how “such and such” obtained a disability retirement approval for “far less than the medical conditions I have.” Fair enough. Those stories may be true (I never engage in a discussion about the validity or truth of such stories; they are what they are — stories); nevertheless, there are multiple factors which are considered at each stage of the process of filing for disability retirement: Who the OPM Specialist is that will be reviewing an application; the subjective application of which criteria are applied in a given case; the personal and professional differences that arise between different bureaucrats at the Office of Personnel Management (no, don’t believe in the story that there is an “objective” methodology of applying the law when reviewing each disability retirement application); and multiple other factors, including whether or not your particular disability retirement packet was reviewed by someone at the Office of Personnel Management when he or she had a “bad day”.
To counter all of the multiple factors over which we don’t have any control, one must always take the “long view” — the view that it may take two denials, and end up before a Judge at the Merit Systems Protection Board. At that point, it is important for the Judge to see how well-documented the case has been prepared; that legal arguments have already shown that OPM was unreasonable in its initial decision and its Reconsideration Denial; and how, despite additional attempts at fulfilling OPM’s requests for additional medical documentation, that OPM continued to be unreasonable. By preparing for the “long view”, a disability retirement packet not only has the best chance of getting it approved in the “short run”, but also at the Merit Systems Protection Board.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Pre-Application Considerations, U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | Tagged: Boyers Office, civil service disability retirement, dealing with the OPM bureaucracy, disability retirement application, disability retirement at the USPS, disability retirement packet, federal disability retirement application and process, federal disability retirement approval, federal employee disability, federal employees disability benefits, Merit Systems Protection Board and OPM disability, MSPB Administrative Judge (AJ), Nexus between Medical Condition and Essential Elements, Office of Personnel Management (OPM), OPM Initial Stage, OPM objective methodology, OPM Representative, OPM Specialist, Post Office disability, postal employee injury, separated from service, the approval/disapproval process, USPS disability claims, USPS Workers Comp, what to do if your opm disability is denied? | Leave a comment »
