The Second Denial — a denial from the Office of Personnel Management of a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS — often fails to annotate or delineate an extensive basis for the denial, but simply reiterates that they believe the original decision was correct based upon a re-review of the application.
It means nothing more than that another Claims Representative in a separate “branch” of the same Agency decided to support the original Claims Representative in denying the application. No greater validity is obtained merely because two different people looked at the application, as well as any additional medical or other supporting documentation, and came to the same conclusion. Two people can be wrong about the same issue, and indeed, OPM is normally wrong about issues concerning Federal Disability Retirement applications, precisely because many OPM Representatives (if not most) do not keep up with the Court opinions and evolving case laws rendered by the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals cases. Moreover, most Claims Representatives at OPM support their fellow Claims Representative.
A disabled Federal employee or an injured Postal worker should not become discouraged merely because a Second Denial has been issued. Being wrong twice does not translate into a right decision. This is not mathematics, where two negatives result in a positive conclusion. It is merely the next “step” in the process of obtaining a Federal Disability Retirement approval under either FERS or CSRS.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: When the OPM Application Is Denied | Tagged: accepting opm disability clients all across america, becoming discouraged during opm disability process, civil service disability, denied, disability retirement at the USPS, federal disability attorney, FERS disability retirement, filing for OPM disability retirement, if your fers disability application has been denied for a second time, law firm representing clients in opm disability law all across america, legal representation for injured federal workers, looking forward the next step in the opm disability process: mspb, nationwide representation of federal employees, OPM denied my FERS disability claim, OPM disability lawyer, OPM disability retirement, opm representative's understanding of opm disability law, owcp disability retirement, postal service disability retirement, representing federal employees from any us government agency, statutory requirements in OPM disability law, the discouraged and injured postal worker, the non-attorney opm representative, the opm representative assigned to your disability claim, the opm representatives at various opm disability stages, the second stage opm representative, this is the second time they denied my federal disability application, USPS disability retirement, what can I do if my disability has been denied at the opm reconsideration stage?, when the opm disability applicant gets discouraged, when the opm representative reviews your disability application, when your fers disability application has been denied twice by the opm, why opm reps are not always right when they deny your fers claim, why the opm disability specialists can be wrong |
Leave a Reply