Federal & Postal Employee Medical Retirement: The Mistake Unrecognized

We can always quibble about what constitutes a “mistake” — but, generally, there are circumstances described which fall into the center of the conceptual definition, those which border on the periphery, and then the remainder which, while having a consensus that they stray outside of the boundaries, nevertheless are often described as a “mistake”, but only in a retrospective manner.

Examples: A man is driving down a road and makes a left turn instead of a right.  He thought he knew where he was going, but clearly did not.  He made a mistake.  A clerk in an ice cream store thought the customer said, “Give me a scoop of Godzilla Ice Cream” — a specialty of the shop comprised of chocolate and large fudge bits. Instead, the customer had said, “Give me a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream.”  In the din of the noisiness, the clerk misheard and made a mistake.

An individual purchases some stolen items from a street vendor.  She suspects that they are stolen, but because of the extraordinary price for which the items are aggregately offered, represses such thoughts and agrees to the purchase.  Later, the police raid the woman’s home and confiscate the property.  Was it a “mistake”?  In what way?

Here are several: It was a mistake to repress the suspicions aroused; it was a mistake to purchase such items from a street vendor; it was a mistake to fail to connect the dots of illogic; but had the person never been caught, and the value of the items later increased a hundredfold and was legitimately sold at Sothebys for an eye-opening profit, would the transaction be characterized as a “mistake”?

And finally: A similar transactional relationship; but let’s change the hypothetical somewhat.  In the new scenario, the person about to engage in the transaction asks for advice before concluding the deal.  Everyone tells him, “Don’t do it.  It is clearly fenced goods.”  A friend — a retired police officer — gives the following advice: “You know it’s gotta be stolen. You can be arrested for participating in receiving of stolen goods.  Don’t do it.” Multiple family members say t he same thing.  The person goes ahead and attempts to close the deal and, in the process, the police raid the establishment, charge the individual and place him in jail.  Was it a “mistake”?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job — don’t make the mistake of unrecognized scenarios.

Contact a FERS Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and avoid those “mistakes” which are clearly there and which can — and will — defeat a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

OPM Medical Retirement under FERS: Primary Questions

You can easily get entrenched within a morass of details.  Primary questions — those issues which, when addressed and answered, essentially take care of sub-questions and lesser categories of details — need to be identified and prioritized.

Many people are unable to recognize, identify and extract the primary questions.  Why? Because, if you are unfamiliar with the paradigmatic, upper echelons of the legal criteria being applied (for instance, in a legal matter), then how are you going to be able to “separate out” the proverbial grain from the chaff?

At all 3 of the main stages of a Federal Disability Retirement case — at the Initial Stage; if denied, at the Reconsideration Stage; if denied a second time, before an Administrative Judge at the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board — it is important to either preemptively or actively discern and discard the unimportant side-issues, and to focus upon the primary questions in a Federal Disability Retirement case.

The rule of life always applies: Prioritize; identify the primary questions and issues; take care of what is relevant; then, the rest of the “minor details” will often naturally fall to the wayside.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: Developing the Viable Case

There is often a “twilight” period in the course of struggling with a medical condition — where the impact of the medical condition begins to slowly interfere with work competence, daily living activities and physical / mental capabilities; where the doctors are considering whether the medical conditions are chronic and intractable; and what this all means for the future.

There can be a “tipping point” on either side of the case: Perhaps some minor adjustments and accommodations can allow you to continue in your career; or, you may have come to a point where it becomes clearer and clearer that your medical conditions are incompatible with the type of work you do.  Wherever you are in the process, developing the viable case should include clarifying the legal issues inherent in considering a FERS Disability Retirement case.

Consult with an OPM Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and begin the process of considering where you are in the twilight period of your case.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Early Medical Retirement for Federal Employees with Disabilities: The Contest

Too much of life is seen this way and engaged in that manner — of a contest; like a football game or a game of monopoly.  Perhaps that is the problem; that we bring children up thinking that “play time” is preparation for the real deal — life; but what if the “kinds” of play represent the wrong type of preparatory engagements?

Many conflicts appear merely because of the wrong-headed perspective of the “contestants”, when in fact a given process needs first to be clearly defined, the issues identified, parameters sharpened and roles understood.  Divorces often result from silly arguments ill-conceived as a contest of wills where love is abandoned, needs forgotten and the concept of “marriage” undefined.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who must deal with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management because of a need to file for FERS Disability Retirement benefits, having the proper perspective at each of the three (3) primary levels or stages of engagement is important.  While it may not be a “contest”, it is certainly a legal conflict of an adversarial nature, and one which requires a FERS Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.

Contact an OPM Disability Attorney who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement Law, and recognize that the “contest” involving your legal rights involves “contestants” who must either win the case, or lose it — thus requiring the involvement of the specialist who knows how to “fight” in such a contest.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Postal & Federal Employee Disability Retirement from the OPM: Loss of Regularity

Regularity is tantamount to reliability; it is the repetitive acts which provide the context for human security in an insecure world replete with dangers, fears (whether founded or unfounded), deterioration, devastation and decline leading to demise.  The sun rises today and we expect it to rise again tomorrow.

We anticipate that the coffee shop down the street, existing for these many years, will be open as it was yesterday and the day before. But in the middle of the night, a fire may have raged, a storm may have blown, a tornado might have scattered; and when suddenly we discover the loss of regularity, an unsettling sense overwhelms us.

What can we depend upon and where can regularity be exposed?  Human frailty is the norm for human beings.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from further continuing in his or her career of choice, the loss of regularity is often as devastating as the medical condition itself.  The key is to find the next phase of regularity, and to get a FERS Disability Retirement approved in order to attain that goal.

Contact an OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and begin the process of finding the next phase of security, the next corner of reliability, and to overcome that loss of regularity.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Postal and Federal Employee Disability Attorney: Telltale Signs

What are they, and how is it that we overlook them so often?  Take, for example, the Federal or Postal employee who begins the process of seeking a lawyer to represent him or her to obtain Federal or Postal Disability Retirement benefits.  The Federal or Postal worker makes a phone call — perhaps a voicemail is reached, and so you leave a message.  You don’t get a call for 2 or 3 days, or even until late the next day.  Isn’t that a telltale sign of something?

Or, someone does finally call you back or you actually do get through to a “live” person — but not the lawyer.  Instead, you are speaking to an “Intake Specialist”, or Mr. So-and-so’s “Administrative Assistant” or “Paralegal” or — better yet — someone who self-identifies as a “Disability Specialist”. ??????????

You began by setting out to hire a lawyer — a person who has a law degree and is versed in the legal complexities of Federal Disability Retirement Law, and you end up with a non-lawyer who holds the dubious credentials of being a “Disability Specialist”; are these not telltale signs?

If you want the wisdom, advice and guidance of an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, then make sure that you recognize the telltale signs and insist that you be represented by an actual Lawyer who Specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal & Postal Worker Disability Retirement: Consequences

They exist and occur, for every act we engage, for every decision we make.  Some, inconsequential; others, of some limited impact; still others, of greater reverberations; and of a limited few — of impact both felt and ones by which we must live with.  Regrets result from the greater consequences we believe we could have prevented, altered, precluded or changed; those are the ones which nag and trail, follow us in haunting residue of forever regrets.

What could have changed things?  How could I have done things differently?  Why didn’t I do something at the time?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, consider the consequences — then consult with an experienced attorney who will be able to guide you throughout the process.

Contact an OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, lest the consequences of proceeding without specialized advice could result in regret and remorse.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Disability Retirement: Vanishing Point

It was a 1971 movie that had a cult following, about a drug-addicted war hero wagered to transport a high-powered vehicle within a specified period of time from point A to point B.  Whether the story had a discernibly rational plot or not was beside the point; the story entertained, and we gleaned from it whatever points we read into it.

That is probably one of the primary reasons why the movie gained in such popularity: people argued as to the “meaning” of the move and its ending, all the while never realizing that there was never a single answer.

Life is often like that, and perhaps that is why the movie itself gained so much attention.  The meaning we demand from our own lives is often a matter of our own lack of imagination; we ask too much of concepts which have too little to give.  As one of the character’s father stated in a Woody Allen movie, How can one know about the greater questions of the universe when “I can’t even get the can opener to work”?

For Federal and Postal employees who need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, the “vanishing point” may differ from person to person.  What you do not want to do, however, is to let the Agency or the Postal Service to determine the timing, nature, place and context of the “vanishing point” of your career.

Consult with a FERS Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and take control of your own “vanishing point” before a cult following you don’t even know about, develops behind your back.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Medical Retirement for Federal Government Employees: Avoidance

It is a common tool of the psyche and ego; by engaging in it, one skirts around an issue, and like its cousin, procrastination, it allows for a period of calm respite.  Avoidance is a form of procrastination; both allow for the subject of their common focus to fester, to grow, to loom large in the background without attending to its causes.

Say you are standing in your bedroom; it is raining; there is a patch of discoloration in the ceiling.  You wonder if the roof is leaking.  You pass it off as bad eyesight, or some other reason, and turn away, avoiding the problem by simply ignoring it.  The next time it rains, you sneak a peek and, sure enough, the discoloration has expanded, but you say to yourself, “Well, there is no actual drip from the ceiling, so perhaps it is not a leak, after all, but merely some accumulating condensation”.

Now, whatever “some accumulating condensation” may mean, it still points to a problem that should be attended to, but instead, the obscure-sounding phrase seems to explain an otherwise clearly-growing problem, and thus the next step in the avoidance-process has begun: Explaining it away, as opposed to tackling the core of the problem itself.

Avoidance is a natural defense mechanism inherent in us all; it allows us to extend our need to limit confronting something which we do not desire to engage.

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 all of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal position, avoidance of facing either the medical problem itself, or its impact upon your capacity and ability to perform your job, is often a problem which allows the issue to loom larger than necessary.

Consult with an attorney who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement Law, and allow for the avoidance to be confronted by an experienced attorney, thus further avoiding direct engagement with the issues, yet allowing for the attorney to address the core issue: Preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Seeking Stability

It is what gives us hope and a sense of self-confidence: Stability.  How we seek it out; what is needed to maintain it; what satisfies the criteria for each individual; these are the questions that compel each of us in seeking stability.  Stability may differ for each individual.  For some, it may be satisfied by the certainty of a career.  For others, the requirements may involve family, friends and other relationships — that “internal” sense of stability that allows for greater chaos within the external world.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition and where that medical condition prevents one from performing the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, seeking stability within the context of an unstable work environment becomes of paramount importance.

Consult with an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and stabilize the uncertainties that surround your career which has been impeded and made difficult from a medical condition which is beyond your control.  For, that which is beyond your control is the very foundation of instability, and obtaining a Federal Disability Retirement annuity may be the road’s end in seeking stability.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire