Federal and Postal Disability Retirement: Approvals & Disapprovals

The Office of Personnel Management seems to have recently issued a volume of decisions on Federal Disability Retirement applications on Federal and Postal employees under FERS & CSRS.

From the calls received from non-clients, and from clients, one sometimes wonders whether or not some sort of “quota-system” isn’t being imposed at the top levels.  Yet, statistically, the percentage of disapprovals v. approvals is not noticeably different than before; it is difficult to determine in any given period of time whether or not there is a higher rate of denials/disapprovals than approvals, in comparison to other periods.

What matters is not the general rate of approvals or disapprovals; rather, each individual case must be taken on its own merit, and responded to with the Office of Personnel Management (or, if the denial is at the Reconsideration Stage, then an appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board) in a timely fashion, and in a tailored, appropriate manner.

Each case is indeed “different”.  One cannot compare one case with “war stories” about how X filed his or her application and got it approved “within a week”.  Such rumors can never be verified, and even if it could be verified, there are always individual and unique circumstances which must be taken into account.

Comparisons between different time periods, as well as between two or more independent cases, are never helpful; instead, the focus must be to take the uniqueness of any given case, and decide on the best course of action in order to obtain the one and only outcome which is acceptable for any given OPM Disability Retirement case under FERS or CSRS:  an ultimate approval.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal and Postal Disability Retirement: The Client’s Interests

The Client’s interests is obviously what is always paramount for an attorney representing an individual in any given case, in any arena of law.  In Federal Disability Retirement law under FERS & CSRS, there is the added urgency in addition to the client — that of the continuing medical disability.  For every attorney, there are always competing interests for the limited time of any attorney — taken up by consultation, proper and careful preparation of the Federal Disability Retirement application itself; preparation for a Merit Systems Protection Board Hearing; and many other issues.  Time is the valuable commodity, and the attorney representing a Federal or Postal worker must take care to focus upon the essential aspects of what will ultimately result in the victory for the client:  an approval of a Federal Disability Retirement claim from the Office of Personnel Management. 

Sometime, read Anton Chekhov’s short story, Grief.  It is about a man whose son has just died.  As with any person with a tale to tell, it must be told.  So it is with any Federal or Postal employee who suffers from a medical condition which impacts one’s ability to perform the essential elements of one’s job.  There is a story to tell.  At the same time, however, the Attorney who represents a person to obtain disability retirement must focus the story itself; to do otherwise ends up failing to serve the client’s best interest — the focus upon what will end in ultimate victory:  an approval from the Office of Personnel Management granting the Client his or her Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire