FERS Disability Retirement: The Unwritten Last chapter

In one sense, of course, the last chapter has already been written for everyone — for, mortality imposes an identical outcome for all, and no matter the attempts of delay or circumvent that ultimate outcome, by artificial means of making one’s appearance younger than one’s stated age or by cellular-regenerative methods like exercise and good diet, etc., in the end, all such attempts are ultimately futile and we must all succumb to the natural deterioration and decay of our physical existence.

But it is in the “how” of mortality’s inevitability which makes for the uniqueness of that last unwritten chapter for each of us; of how the dusk’s phase of life was lived, the wisdom gained and imparted prior to departure, and what lasting legacy was left for those whose lives have many more chapters left to be written.

Is it with a bang or a whimper?  How many friends and family gather about to say farewell?  What stories and memories hold sway in the final paragraphs?

For many, applying for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is tantamount to writing the last unwritten chapter of one’s life — if only because it always feels like the end of something significant; and indeed, it is an “important next phase” in one’s life — but it need not be the last unwritten chapter, but instead, the first in a series within a new beginning.

FERS Disability Retirement secures one’s financial future so that many more future chapters may be added in the coming years, including beginning a new career, going back to school, or traveling the world over.  Contact a FERS Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider whether the unwritten last chapter in your life might not be the first chapter in a new and exciting novel at the dawn of your life.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Lawyer exclusively representing Federal and Postal employees to secure their Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

 

FERS Disability Law: From Sanity to Madness

How quickly does it appear to disintegrate; and, yet, upon closer reflection, evaluation and inspection — of the signs missed; the indicia ignored; the greater positivity of perspective misplaced.

On the microcosmic scale, the seemingly “happy” family — of the regular routine of school, work, activities and the busy schedule confined to the kitchen table’s calendar marked with fulfilling lives; and then, the “sudden” disintegration by infidelity, followed by accusations, signs missed, evidence ignored, of claims to underlying unhappiness and a world gone awry.

On a macro-scale — of dealing with a rogue nation; of lavishing with red carpets, acceptance into the greater “league of nations” and believing that by encouraging comfort and affluence, the core of authoritarianism will diminish.  Then — invasion, mayhem, cruelty and bestiality of warring stratagems; and we “suddenly” awaken to a universe where yesterday appeared sane and today became madness.

From sanity to madness can occur in an instant — from individual lives to geopolitical spheres.  But of the signs we missed, the indicators ignored.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition where the the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the basic elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the sanity of daily living can quickly become interrupted by the emergence of an injury or medical condition impacting one’s career, daily living, and general livelihood.

Sure, there were probably some indicators early on about the severity and chronic nature of the developing medical condition, but more importantly, it is of relevance to evaluate and assess in the immediacy of its impact upon your ability and capacity to perform the essential elements of your job.

Contact a Federal Disability Retirement Attorney to discuss the viability of preparing, formulating and filing an application for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, before the quick-step marching band which plays to the silence of the crowd doesn’t turn the relative calm of sanity into a mad-dash of madness.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Lawyer exclusively representing Federal and Postal employees to secure their Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

 

FERS Disability Retirement Application: Surprises

Some are welcome (e.g., birthday parties; finding something you thought had been lost; morning licks from a puppy; and other such commonplace but unexpected events); others, less so (an unplanned expense; a car running a red light in your lane of travel; a medical event, etc.).  Whether most are truly surprises is questionable, as opposed to merely occurring in the midst of being disorganized or lacking foresight.

It is, in the end, how one reacts to the event which determines the substance of the surprise.  Some go through life in a state of unemotional aplomb; others, where everything and anything is excitable and thus constitutes a self-described, breathless “surprise”, as in: “Oh, I was soooo, soooo surprised by it all!”  And “It was just so surprising!”

Such unexpected events make for life’s interesting challenges; but of medical conditions unexpected — they are the least welcome, and the most disturbing, despite the fact that as we grow older, we should all expect our bodies to deteriorate, our minds to wane, our health to decline.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the surprise no longer allows you to perform all of the essential elements of your Federal or Postal job, the one surprise which should not occur is this: Part of your employment “package” includes Federal Disability Retirement benefits, and you should be able to access such benefits.  However, as with all things in life, the “fine print” of the benefit may be somewhat of a surprise — in that you have to “prove” your case, and such proof can be varied, numerous and complex.

Contact a lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and minimize any further surprises in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS, through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), by having an experienced FERS Disability Attorney represent you throughout the bureaucratic process of endless surprises.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Lawyer exclusively representing Federal and Postal employees to secure their Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

 

Federal & Postal Worker Disability Retirement: The Interrupted Cadence

We all have a cadence which we follow; the morning routine; the afternoon lull; the evening monotony of every day actions, repeated each day, day after day.  And so the march of life goes on, with a familiar cadence throughout, rarely uninterrupted, and allowing for sanity to perform the subconscious acts throughout each and every day.  For, if every day were to lack the cadence of the previous day, chaos would prevail and the anarchy of life’s problems would be the only force which would dominate.

We like music which possesses an inherently consistent beat.  Instruments placed together and playing without regard to one another merely produce sounds of shrieking discordance.  “Music”, indeed, is different from mere sounds blaring at the same time, and the cadence of the day is like music to one’s ear: It is pleasant, reliable, and dependable.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition no longer allows you to continue in your career with the Federal Agency or the U.S. Postal Service, the fact that your cadence of life has been interrupted is problematic enough; to be denied by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management for a benefit you deserve — a Federal Disability Retirement annuity — adds insult to injury.

Contact an OPM Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and see whether we can restore the interrupted cadence of life by reversing OPM’s denial of a Federal Employee Disability Retirement application.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
OPM Disability Attorney

 

OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: Other Places, Other Times

People study history for various reasons: the interest of other times, the peculiarity of other places — and yet the similarity of people no matter what the historical context.  Other places, other times, reveal to us the pattern of behaviors engaged in across time, cultures, historical contexts and prevailing dogmas which dominated a particular society, civilization or epoch of noted influence.  It gives us a perspective and, often for the good, a sense of knowledge that other places, other times are not too dissimilar from the one we are currently experiencing.

Do we repetitively make the same mistakes as generations past?  Likely.  Are we wont to repeat them in the future?  Yes.  Do we ever learn from our mistakes?  Unlikely.  Human beings, for the most part, do what they want to do, and then scramble to gather the justifying reasons for having done them.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition necessitates preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS, know that in other places and at other times, Federal and Postal employees have successful fought with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and have won their Federal Disability Retirement benefits despite the unfair advantage which OPM holds over you.

Consult with a Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer and know that an experienced Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer has the experience that in many other places, at multiple other times, success has been achieved in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement for Federal Employees: Waves of Misfortune

Metaphors allow us to understand our circumstances; by relating the circumstance to the natural world around us, we feel a greater kinship when, in all other aspects of our lives, we have tried to alienate ourselves and artificially separate our lives from the origins of our own existence.  Similes, of course, always contain the comparative contrast that allows for a space between that which is compared and the reality of “what is”.

Thus, to say that “X is like Y” is quite different from saying that “X is Y”, even though we know in both instances that X is not Y, and that is precisely why we assert that there is a likeness between X and Y (because “likeness” is not the same as “sameness”) and also why we declare X to be Y even though they are not one and the same.  Thus is there a difference between “Waves of misfortune” (a metaphor) and “Misfortune are like waves” (a simile).

The comparative preposition creates a once-removed parallelism (simile), whereas the metaphor makes no doubt of the mirror image of one with the other.

Medical conditions are more like metaphors (here, we are utilizing a simile to describe a metaphor); there is no space or removal between the situations being compared.  To have a medical condition is not “like” something else; rather, it is the reality of one’s existence.  It is through metaphors, however, as well as similes that we describe the symptoms to our doctors and others, to try and help them understand what it is like to be in constant pain, to be depressed, to be profoundly fatigued.

And for Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition necessitates preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, it must be understood that the Federal Disability Retirement “package” is a paper presentation to OPM, and thus must by necessity use both metaphors and similes in order to persuade OPM of having met the legal criteria of a FERS Disability Retirement application.

The “waves of misfortune” must be described persuasively, lest they become a metaphor for failure in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application that results in a denial as opposed to an approval.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement: Elevation of the Ordinary

The ordinary is in contrast to the extraordinary; the extraordinary, to the penultimate superlative; and perhaps one may go on to greater heights of adjectives, but the one which cannot be surpassed is that of “perfection”.

Various perspectives depend upon the manner of how we approach life; on the one hand, the “ordinary” can be viewed as comfortable anonymity — of a self-satisfied status of neither shining beyond nor underwhelming those around, but a quiet competence which betrays a quietude of monotony, of sorts.

By distinctive differentiation, the “extraordinary” is separated from the former by way of elevated characteristics that point out some level of accolades beyond — somewhat like those brighter stars within the vast universe of a sky filled with billions and billions of twinkling lights (can you hear in the background the voice of Carl Sagan?).

For some reason, we scoff at the ordinary and encourage a stature of the extraordinary.  Perfection is out of our reach; the extraordinary, however, is somehow seen as achievable, and so we become life coaches for our children within the microcosmic universe of our own lives: You can become X; You can do better; You can be the best; You are a special individual — etc.

When does the ordinary become a goal in life?  When everything and everyone is “extraordinary”, doesn’t the extraordinary become the ordinary?  When the elevation of the ordinary becomes a commonplace occurrence, then nothingness becomes something and everything becomes conflated and indistinguishable.  Until — that which was once ordinary is lessened.

When a medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from doing the ordinary — of one’s job; of enjoying the weekends; of being able to just take out the garbage without pain, etc.; then the elevation of the ordinary becomes a focus of want.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the ordinary is elevated to a goal of satisfaction, then it is time to prepare, formulate and file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Focusing upon one’s health is an ordinary matter for most people — we take our health for granted.  When our health fails, however, then it is time to view the elevation of the ordinary as a means of reaching for a time that once was, where Federal Disability Retirement benefits will allow for the extraordinary circumstances to return the Federal or Postal employee to the desired goal of elevation back to the ordinary.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement for Federal Employees: The real me

Are there societies in which the non-existence of the concept of “self” reveals a qualitative difference in approaching life in general?  Does the fact that language embraces the singular personal pronoun in contradistinction to the plural, communal form (i.e., “we” or “us”) make a difference in the manner in which we see the world?

If “I” as the subject/nominative form or the “me” as the objective (accusative and dative form) were to be expunged from the English Lexicon, would the universe be shaken and the axis upon which rotation occurs be shattered such that earth would no longer remain as we have known it?  Or — beyond the modernity of linguistic philosophy, where there are no substantive philosophical problems which cannot be solved by Wittgensteinian means of clarifying, modifying or overhauling the language game utilized — will we merely go on as before and act “as if” the “I” and “me” did not exist, but carry on for selfish purposes, anyway?

There is always that hankering by each one of us that “if only…”.  If only people knew the “real me”; if only she could recognize the uniqueness of the “I” that doesn’t quite come out right because of my nervousness, shyness, etc.  If only the boss knew; if only my wife knew; if only my husband knew….

The cynic, of course, would counter with: Good thing no one knows the real you….  Or, is it really just another form of the philosophical conundrum that we have cornered ourselves into — sort of like Ryle’s “Ghost in the Machine” argument where Cartesian dualism doesn’t exist, and so there is no “real me” beneath the surface of what we present to the world — that, in fact, we really are boorish, one-dimensional and unsophisticated creatures who put on a good show, and that is all there is to the “I” and “me”: A composite of the Neanderthal who puts on a necktie and pronounces words and phrases in monosyllabic forms of grunts and groans?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition and who must consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the real “I” or “me” is certainly not the person whom the Agency has tagged as “less than whole” because of the medical condition itself.

Yet, that is how the Federal Agency and the Postal unit will often approach the unfortunate circumstances of the Federal employee or Postal worker who reveals an intent to file for OPM Disability Retirement benefits under FERS.  No longer as part of the “we” or “us” team of Federal employees or Postal workers, the Federal Disability Retirement applicant is often shunned and sequestered, and generally harassed and placed under administrative sanctions — merely for revealing a vulnerability resulting from a medical condition.

That is essentially where the problem of the “real me” resides: Of how we pigeonhole one another.

To avoid that as much as possible, it is a good idea to consult with an Attorney who Specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, to fight back against the notion of the real me that the Federal Agency or the Postal Service wants to depict, as that malingering worker who once was X, but is now seen as Y.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Filing for OPM Disability Retirement: Distant lights dimming

How can distant lights dim when they are mere specks upon a blanketed panorama of darkness?

One looks up at the stars and we are told, of course, that the sparkling tapestry may contain those which are already vanished, and what we “see”are merely the residue of a dead or dying star.  In a universe based upon a visual-centered arena, the reliance upon sight to establish facts and verify truth-statements cannot be avoided.

That was Berkeley’s problem, as well — and one which he deftly avoided by re-defining the definition of existence by tying it inextricably with “perception”, including visual, auditory and tactile means.  Much later, and after a series of devastating criticisms launched at the entirety of empiricist tendencies that some would counter artificially manufactured unnecessary philosophical problems (but isn’t that the “fun” of philosophy — to always be left with more problems to solve than the day before?) which haunts us to this very day, Wittgenstein came along and waved aside such conundrums by relegating all such issues to mere problems of linguistic confusion.

Thus was reality divorced from the language we use to describe the phenomena that surrounds us, leaving science left standing as the Last Man and the primacy of philosophy relegated to the dusty shelves of Medieval Times.  Distant lights dimming?  No more a problem than the campfire dilemma — for, do we say that because we cannot precisely pinpoint the demarcation between light and darkness at the periphery of a glowing campfire, that therefore no campfire exists at all?  Of course not!

It is thus not the result of the physical objectivity of the world around us that confuses, but the inadequacy of language that confounds.  Yet, as Man must communicate by means of language and operate effectively within the objective world, so the development of various “language games” must by necessity evolve into greater heights of absurdity.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition impacts upon the reality of the “objective” world — entrance and introduction into the binary universe of language games and the greater world at large must also, by necessity, come together in the form of preparing, formulating and filing an effective OPM Disability Retirement application.

You have the medical condition; the medical condition is impacting your ability and capacity to continue in your present position as a Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker.  Such a medical condition may necessitate filing for Federal Disability Retirement — but understand that submitting a “paper presentation” to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether you as the Federal or Postal employee under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, requires an adequacy of language that must go beyond the reality of the medical condition itself.

And like the distant lights dimming, what actually “is” may be divorced from the language which must be carefully chosen and transcribed, lest such inadequacy fails to describe and delineate the reality of the medical condition from which you suffer.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Medical Retirement Legal Representation: Coordination

Lack of it brings out the awkwardness of disjointedness; sometimes, it can be compensated by height or other attributes, but even then, it results in lack of efficiency, at best, and a danger to self or others at its worst.  Coordination is necessary not only for efficiency, but for effectiveness, as well.

Try and remember when you first began learning how to operate a motor vehicle: the need to coordinate one’s panorama of visual stimuli from all directions; judging the speed, distance and predictable behavior of other vehicles surrounding; of “putting it all together” in steering the vehicle, maintaining the proper speed, of determining the distance between yourself and other vehicles, how much pressure to exert upon the gas pedal and the brake pedal; and thank the stars that in modernity the “clutch” is no longer a common device on most vehicles, lest trying to get the car moving on a steep hill after the engine has stalled should again become the test of adulthood as it was for everyone in past generations.

Coordinating varying efforts, elements, components and the “thousand little things” that we now take for granted, was not such an insignificant encounter when we first learned to drive.  The simple task of adjusting the mirrors in coordination and in conjunction with the position of one’s seat was an exercise that once required thought and foresight, as one found it a bit more trying if you found out that you couldn’t see the other cars while traveling on a highway where speed limits were considered mere ornaments with irrelevant numbers on wooden posts to be summarily ignored.

Now, of course, everything is easy — coordination of all of the elements becomes a thoughtless exercise of taking things for granted.  For, with a push of a button, you can “reset” the previous coordinates already stored in the car’s computer memory bank.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, it may become necessary to begin preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application for filing with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

It may, for many, seem like trying to learn how to drive all over again — of the need to coordinate all of the elements, including the medical reports, treatment records, office notes; of preparing a legal memorandum that is persuasive to OPM by pointing out how the medical evidence is supported by the legal precedents which have previously determined a successful outcome; of formulating the Applicant’s Statement of Disability in conjunction and in coordination with the medical evidence and legal argumentation following; and of coordinating all of the various evidentiary components that comprise the “Federal Disability Retirement Packet” that is to be submitted.

And like the driver who avoids the vehicle on the road that has the big-lettered sign saying, “Student Driver”, we all know that the reason why we steer clear of such vehicles is not because of the teacher accompanying the novice driver, but because of the lack of coordination that might ensue.

That is why consulting with an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law is an important component in preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement case, because like the student driver just learning, it is the expert who teaches how to arrive safely from beginning-point A to destination B that coordinates the necessary operatic touch between stage and reality.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire