Federal Employee Disability Retirement Law: The mish-mash approach

Do you have a linear, sequential methodology?  Is the legal argumentation systematically constructed?  Or, is the mish-mash approach consigned – of a hodgepodge of thousands of hands at needlepoint in creating a colorful quilt for the Fall Festival of creative designs?

Is the Bruner Presumption invoked as an afterthought, and the Bracey-argument concerning accommodations defined in an obfuscated manner, such that the argument reveals more about what you do not know and understand, than of a pin-point accuracy as to the sharpening and attacking of the issues preemptively recognized?  Have, indeed, the knives been sharpened for the battle ahead, or have you revealed the dullness of the edges such that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management will likely scoff with disdain and deny the case at the First Stage of this process?

There is a substantive distinction to be made between making an argument in a non-systematic way, as in a proverbial “shot-gun” approach or of throwing what substance you believe will stick and subsequently splattering it against the wall in hopes of increasing a statistically deficient implementation of the process; that, as opposed to a streamlined, methodological approach of sequentially addressing each issue in a preemptive, categorical manner, as well as recognizing what not to touch at this initial stage of the Federal Disability Retirement process, and in realizing what should be addressed.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are preparing a Federal Disability Retirement application, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, basing one’s approach upon a “hope and a prayer” that things will turn out well, is probably not the most effective nor efficient engagement of behavior.

First, the initial process and stage itself is a bureaucratically lengthy procedure, such that if the Federal Disability Retirement applicant does not enhance the chances of success at the First Stage, time is “lost” in that a denial will simply quantify by exponential multiplication the time taken at the Second, Reconsideration Stage; and further, another catastrophic delay if an appeal is needed to be taken to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

In the end, the mish-mash approach is what most of us do in life, and often is the very reason why we ended up where we are.  But in the preparation, formulation and filing of an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, it may well be time to abandon the mish-mash approach, and consider consulting with a Federal Disability Retirement lawyer who specializes in a different approach – one reflecting a systematic, methodological and sequentially logical engagement, refined through many years of experience and encounters with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal & Postal Disability Retirement: The Distant Whisperings of Change

When the warning signs in the sky prophesize that it is time to go to the promised land of Federal or Postal Disability Retirement

Sometimes, it is a gnawing sense; other times, a faint murmur whispering a warning of wayward paths impending upon the precipice of time, urging one to consider a different trail to take; but more often, it is not the distant sound of the mountains which we fail to consider; rather, it is that we selectively hear, but deliberately ignore.

Medical conditions tend to betray us; they do not provide the subtlety of quiet and gentle reminders, and when they do, the progressive nature of the drumbeat of persistent pain, chronicity of signs, and incessant expansion of deteriorating dimensions call for an attention which refuses to be avoided.

Change is often and inevitable aspect of life.

For Federal and Postal employees who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, the need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal Worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the growing nature of one’s debilitating medical condition cannot be ignored.

If the precept of life is accepted, and change is an inevitable component of the precondition for the future, then ignoring the warning signs impending is merely to delay the consequences of that which is existentially fateful.  Unlike the sound of the mountain permeating the morning sunrise, where the mist of calm begins to lift like angels in the twilight of heaven, medical conditions which require a change in one’s life must be acknowledged and accepted.

Federal OPM Disability Retirement is a benefit offered to all Federal and Postal workers who have the minimum 18 months of Federal Service under FERS, and 5 years under CSRS; it allows for the Federal and Postal employee to move forward in life, and not remain stuck in the misery of changelessness. As change is the bellwether for the future, so remaining stuck is to ignore the distant whisperings of change, and the inevitable necessity of acting.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire