At what point is the sufficiency test satisfied? Who determines when the bathtub is full enough in order to bathe? What constitutes the threshold of being gluttonous on Thanksgiving, as opposed to having had a hearty meal? And, for a FERS or CSRS Disability Retirement application, what standard determines whether or not a person has submitted evidence sufficient to meet the preponderance of the evidence test, in order to persuade the U.S. Office of Personnel Management that a Federal Disability Retirement application has met its burden, and that the Federal or Postal employee is therefore eligible and entitled to receive an approval and a subsequent annuity?
Clearly, it cannot be mere volume of medical reports and records; for, otherwise, cases with barely a dozen pages of a report, diagnostic test results and some office notes would not pass through the scrutiny of the OPM Caseworker. If not volume, then is it the quality of the report and records? Here, too, while a well-documented file may generally meet the sufficiency test, there are times when OPM will insist upon treatment notes for the past 18 – 24 months before considering a case for approval.
The sufficiency test is often an admixture of quality, quantity, and a compendium of selectively highlighted documentation which, in their totality, prove an OPM Federal Disability Retirement case. There are no two cases alike, though similarities may abound. Each case must be seen in its own unique light, and within that context, a case must be carefully constructed and compiled. Only in this manner and approach will the sufficiency test be met, and only after a careful and thorough review of the facts, issues and particular uniqueness of a given case — somewhat in a reflectively similar manner as OPM will do in reviewing the submitted case.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Burden of Proof | Tagged: a candid evaluation of your work performance and how your medical condition affects it, a rational perspective from your disability claim evaluation, an objective evaluation of your opm disability claim, applicant preponderance of evidence burden in federal employees, applying the sufficient documentation test to a standard in an opm disability retirement case, attorney representing federal workers for disability throughout the united states, civil service disability, connecting legal standards and sufficiency tests, considering what is really important for the opm during the application evaluation, disability retirement at the USPS, each disability retirement case is complex when evaluating all needed variables, each federal disability application is unique and should be pre-evaluated for its viability, evaluat, evaluating how strong your federal disability retirement case with the adequacy and sufficiency tests, expecting unrepresented claimants to bear the burden of presenting a compelling case, experience to evaluate a well prepared fers disability application, federal disability attorney, FERS disability retirement, functional abilities evaluation for federal employees, having a medical condition is not sufficient to qualify for opm disability, how to avoid the owcp's "insufficient medical documentation" excuse, how to figure out if the answers you submitted to the disability retirement application questions and the medical documentation you enclosed in the medical disability package will be at least theoreti, knowing what constitutes adequacy and sufficiency of evidence in federal disability retirement theory will help you to assess better if your claim is strong enough to pass opm own sets of scrutiny tes, law firm representing clients in opm disability law all across america, legal sufficiency test, meeting all of the critical elements and the opm's legal burden of proof, meeting the burden of eligibility requirements for medical retirement under fers, nationwide representation of federal employees, opm disability legal sufficiency and proof, owcp disability retirement, sufficiency-of-evidence test in fers disability retirement, sufficient medical evidence disability fers, the legal insufficient test in federal disability retirement, The not-sufficient but all-necessary preparation to apply for OPM Disability benefits, the quantity and quality controls of a subjective assessment to determine if a particular package of medical documentation is sufficient to meet the opm-imposed higher legal standard of review, using the right standard before applying the "insufficient" excuse, USPS disability retirement, USPS disability retirement benefits, what's the burden of proof under fers disability retirement law?, why an adequacy test may not be sufficient to assess if a particular federal disability retirement case or claim is particularly strong enough to file with enough faith and confidence | Leave a comment »
Federal & Postal Service Disability Retirement: Personal v. Objective
Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is a personal matter. It is personal precisely because it is considered as an admission of a disability; it goes to the heart of what a person does in life — one’s livelihood, one’s means of support; and it goes to the perception in our society of the “worth” of an individual — financial worth, productive worth, worth in terms of the ability to support a family, and worth in terms of one’s contribution to society. Because it is so personal, it is difficult to “objectively” assess and evaluate a disability retirement claim, by the individual who is thinking about filing for such a benefit.
That is often why it is important to have an attorney represent an individual who is considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits. Often, when I am hired at the second or third Stage of the process, I read the initial submissions of the client, and find that the “personal” has indeed overtaken the “objective”, precisely because the very subject of the disability retirement process — the applicant — had to undertake the very personal process himself/herself. Such personal subjectivity cannot see beyond the very personal nature of the medical condition, and when that happens, it is almost too personal for the OPM representative to make an objective assessment of the case.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Actors - The Applicant, OPM Disability Actors - The Attorney, OPM Disability Process - 1st Stage: OPM Disability Application, The Job of a Federal Disability Attorney | Tagged: a rational approach to opm disability retirement, an emotional vs. reasoned personal account of disability, an objective evaluation of your opm disability claim, attorney federal disability, blogs owcp and opm disability issues, civil service disability retirement, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, describing a medical tragedy without too much emotionalism, disability retirement in the post office, emotional comments won't always help to get opm application approved, federal civil service disability, federal employee and its acceptance of being disabled, federal employee disability, federal employee disability benefits, federal employee medical retirement, FERS disability retirement, FERS medical retirement, fighting feelings of worthlessness during the opm disability application, filing for usps disability, focusing on medical substantive issues not emotional problems, getting rid of emotional baggage during fers disability application, helping the opm disability specialist to evaluate your claim objectively, helping the opm representative to assess your disability claim, how to get approved for federal employee disability benefits, keeping emotions under control will help an opm disability applicant, keeping your tone cool and rational during application, Maintaining an Objective Perspective in a Disability Case, making rational arguments along with sound medical evidence, no work available for injured postal workers, not getting too personal during the applicant's statement of disability, nrp and defending injured postal workers, OPM disability retirement, OPM objective methodology, owcp disability retirement really is usually meant "opm disability retirement", postal service disability retirement, presenting a personal disability matter objectively, problems with personal disability retirement statements in opm application, rational perspective into the fed workers' medical condition, story of human tragedy, taking lwop for owcp medical condition, the fine balance between rational and emotional factors, the human side of a disability story, top federal disability retirement attorney, us post office disability attorney, usps rehab employees, value of a human being not defined by disabilities, when personal emotions overtake rational thoughts during application process, when the opm applicant can't handle the disability paperwork, why it can be difficult for the opm disability applicant to prove his claim | Leave a comment »