Of course, it is always the separation from service based upon reasons delineated other than medically-based reasons which give rise to concerns in a federal disability retirement case. Understand, however, that the “Bruner Presumption” is essentially a “scale-tipper” for the Office of Personnel Management (supposedly) and for the Administrative Judge at the Merit Systems Protection Board (of somewhat greater certainty). By this, I mean merely that, with or without the Bruner Presumption, a Federal Disability Retirement applicant under FERS or CSRS must still prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he or she is eligible and entitled to federal disability retirement benefits. “Preponderance of the evidence” is essentially proof such that it is “more likely the case than not”. Thus, when all things are equal, the Bruner Presumption is supposed to tip the scale in favor of the federal disability retirement applicant.
On the other hand, if an individual was removed for reasons other than medically-based reasons — i.e., as a hypothetical, let’s say he was removed “for cause” — an act of dishonesty; failure to follow certain agency procedures; or whatever the case may be. Does such a removal tip the scale the other way? Not necessarily; however, it makes gathering the proper medical evidence that much more important, and what I often do is to try and tie in the underlying behavior which resulted in the removal “for cause”, with the medical basis — if at all possible.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Burden of Proof, Federal Disability Judge-Made Decisions Quoted, Resigning or Being Separated From a Federal Agency for Medical Problems or Other Reasons | Tagged: administrative separation from federal employment for medical reasons, agency removal action and opm disability retirement, being removed from the federal sector, Bruner Presumption, bruner presumption in opm disability and its limitations, Burden of Proof, connecting your removal to an underlying disability, disability benefits to federal employees who have become disabled, disability eligibility even if separation is not medically related, disability laws that apply to federal government employees, disability retirement for federal employees, document support for opm disability claimant, eligibility for federal disability benefits even after illegal discharge, entitled to federal disability benefits, establishing a medical condition before federal service separation, federal employee disability, federal employee medical retirement, federal employment discharge for alleged misconduct, federal employment resignation and health insurance, fers disability benefits even after separation for adverse reasons, FERS medical retirement, gathering your disability claim documents, govt employee disability retirement, how to prove the postal service removed you for health related problems, limitations of the bruner presumption, limited burden of proof shift over to OPM, medical removal from federal employment, MSPB Administrative Judge (AJ), OPM disability attorney, OPM disability retirement, opm disability retirement and erroneous discharges, opm disability rights laws to federal workers, opm medical documentation after separation, owcp disability retirement really is usually meant "opm disability retirement", Postal disability retirement, postal service disability retirement, preponderance of the evidence concept in fers disability law, reasons for opm disability retirement, removed from the postal service for psychological reasons, representing federal employees from any us government agency, representing federal employees in and outside the country, separated from service, separation and resignation issues in the federal employment sector, the Bruner Presumption and the burden of proof, USPS disability retirement, when the federal government wants to remove you from employment, when you have not choice but to resign due to your poor health, your reasons to resign from a federal job | 1 Comment »
