FERS Disability Law: The MSPB and Consistency of Argumentation

Is it even important, anymore?  Lawyers, of course, are notorious for making alternate arguments, presenting to a Judge or a Jury different explanations, alternative legal theories and justifications, often within the span of a single sentence, and even sometimes contradicting each other.

It is only when the contradiction occurs within the confines of a single theory that the Judge may say, “Wait, counsel — hoooooold on there!  Are you trying to argue X and Not-X at the same time?”  The answer by the clever lawyer: “No, your honor, I am merely pointing out that X could be, and Not-X is also credible, leaving my client to appear not only as an innocent bystander but, moreover, a not-guilty one as well!”

In some forums, that may hold; but in a Federal Disability Retirement case, the only way that inconsistency of argumentation works is when an OPM Medical Specialist says so.  OPM denies cases systematically without any regard to consistency of argumentation.  This is because there is no accountability at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  They can review a case, deny it, and it is out of the hands of the Medical Specialist who made the decision.

Then, at the Reconsideration Stage, a completely different Medical Specialist will make a brand new determination, based upon his or her own perspective and viewpoint, and it need not have any consistency of argumentation with the previous decision.

Fortunately, however, when it goes before an Administrative Judge at the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, Consistency of Argumentation becomes an important factor.  For, that is one of the primary basis upon which an MSPB Federal Disability Retirement case is lost — when consistency of argumentation based upon the evidence becomes questionable.

Inconsistency is the downfall of most cases at the MSPB; consistency — even with less than adequate evidence of a compelling nature — will often overcome much, and win the case.  The one thing that Administrative Law Judges at the MSPB dislike above all else: Inconsistency in testimony, Inconsistency in evidence, and Inconsistency in the closing argument of an attorney.

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 Disability Retirement Law: The Mistakes We Make

Do you ever look back on your youth and wonder, Wow, how could I have made those mistakes?  If you escaped some significant and major consequences, then likely Providence was looking over you.  Of stupid dares you accepted; of actions bordering on the illegal; perhaps some reckless outings where the police somehow didn’t notice; or of things we did yet hoping for a reprieve, a reset, a forgiving heart.

Do we regret them?  Not if we escaped the repercussions which have beset others; for, it is in the very foolishness of what we did, of the mistakes we made, but where the natural consequences failed to take hold — that is, quite often, the definition of youthful folly.

Nowadays, of course, such youthful folly has become far from innocence-in-action; death, or serious harm, often results, and we have to pay the consequences of such misdeeds.  Somehow, today’s youthful follies are not like those immature misdeeds of the recent past; instead, they are deadly, and neither “innocent” nor “youthful”.

Then, we one day became adults and youthful follies could no longer be considered as such.  The age of adulthood made you no longer youthful, and certainly not free of liability.

For Federal employees and Postal workers who have come to a critical juncture where serious consideration must be given to preparing, formulating and filing an effective OPM Medical Retirement application under FERS because of a medical condition which no longer allows you to continue in the career of your choice, the mistakes we make in preparing, formulating and filing an effective disability retirement application under FERS can lead to devastating consequences.

No longer can you rely upon excuses of past misdeeds:  Of youth; of ignorance; of innocent lack of knowledge, etc.

Contact an attorney who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement Law, and don’t let the mistakes we used to make within the jocular other-worldliness of youth and folly become the mainstay of why you are deprived of a disability retirement annuity which should be obtained, but for the mistakes you used to make, and the ones’s you may still make.

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.

 

Postal & Federal Employee Disability Retirement from the OPM: Knowing the Issues

Without that knowledge, you are going into the arena of legal battle in a blind state, at a disadvantage, and with a high susceptibility of being defeated.  Not knowing what the issues are is like engaging in a frontal assault without having first scouted the position of the enemy — their strength; the terrain; the weapons they possess; their numbers; what fortifications they have established, etc.

You can take a shotgun approach — of guessing at what potential issues may arise — and address them with generalizations and attempted musings of preemptive arguments, but if you don’t know what the issues are, how will you specifically address them, even in a prefatory manner?

In preparing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS, it is important to not only know what the issues are, but to address them in a preemptive way by citing the case-laws which apply.  Each OPM Disability Retirement case has general case-law citations which are always applicable — Bracey v. OPM, for instance.  But then there are specific case-law citations which should be tailored to the unique circumstances of your individual case.

That is why consulting and hiring an effective OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement Law is important — so that you do not engage OPM blindly, but with a full view of what you are facing, the issues which need to be addressed, and the confidence that you have given yourself the best chance at success.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Federal & Postal Disability Lawyer

 

FERS Disability Retirement: When Snow Becomes a Nuisance

Remember when it was all just fun and laughter?  When waking up and looking out at the furious flakes wind-blown and swirling about, the blanket of pure whiteness just waiting to be gathered, felt, rolled into balls and danced upon with cackles of laughter and uproariously unfettered shivers of joy?

There was a time in all of our childhoods when snow was anticipated, enjoyed, savored and embraced — unless, of course, you grew up in Hawaii or some other tropical paradise where only the imagination, books or some other medium of distantly-experienced phenomena could be viewed.

Then, one day, it became a nuisance.  We know not when, and how, or even the precise moment when the childish delight became a chore; when the fun and chatter became merely a din of distraction; or why the joy of a snowy day became a dreaded day of darkness.  Innocence cannot last forever, and mortality and vulnerability must rear their ugly heads at some point in everyone’s lives.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition begins to prevent the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the medical condition and its impact upon one’s life is akin to the day when snow became a nuisance: Health is often taken for granted, but when it is lost, then everything else becomes a dreaded chore and a daily struggle.

Consult with a FERS Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and consider preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Employee Disability Retirement application under FERS, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, so that the things which you have lost — like your health and sense of optimism for the future — can be regained, and perhaps even that the snow can be somewhat more than a mere nuisance.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: The Lighter Moments

It might just be a certain look given upon a misinterpreted statement; of what a child does before the perfidies of society begins to corrupt them; or just a burst of laughter upon an innocent comment meant to uplift from a serious incident.  Whatever the circumstances, it is the “lighter moment” which often makes it all worthwhile, and allows for the difficulties of the context to remain endurable.

Life is hard enough: Of paying bills; of worrying about the future; of what will become of our children, our aging parents, and even of our very own future.  It is as if we walk around with scowls etched upon our faces, not out of free will or choice, but because the difficulties themselves force it upon us.  Then comes a lighter moment — a comment, a misstatement, an unintended act or spoken word which brings a smile upon an otherwise stern and impassive face.

We live for those moments.  It is the pause between the serious content, the period before the next sentence and the break until the following chapter.  But when even the lighter moments fail to curl the lips upward and the old joke no longer triggers a burst of laughter, then it becomes clear that life has become too serious even for the grumps who seemingly never enjoy life.  Medical conditions can do that to a person — of draining life out of every last bit of goodness such that even the lighter moments no longer are lighter, but remain as heavy as the thousand-pound metaphor that weighs us down.

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, the struggle of juggling work, health, family and livelihood can be so out of balance that disability retirement under FERS must be considered.

Consult with an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and see what your options are, and whether Federal Disability Retirement may be a viable course to pursue, lest the lighter moment in your life may forever become extinguished into a cavern of darkness where the light of hope may never again shine.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Information: OPM’s Methodology

There may be a single criteria to meet, with subsets of requirements that must be complied with; yet, multiple methodologies in approaching the singular.  How can that be?  Isn’t it all simple, where you read what is required, then gather up all of the evidence that appears to meet it and simply send it all in?  That is the “volume methodology”.

Can a single sentence in a medical report ever meet the legal criteria in an OPM Disability Retirement case — i.e., a “qualitative” methodology, as opposed to a quantitative one?  Sometimes.

Isn’t the law clear in what is required, and isn’t it a matter of just amassing the medical evidence to meet the requirements as stated?  Hmmm…. For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical conditions prevent the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, it is important to understand, somewhat, OPM’s Methodology in reviewing and deciding upon a case.

First of all, not all medical conditions are equal.  Perhaps that is self-evident, but for the Federal or Postal employee who suffers from one or another medical condition, and must endure the daily pain, restriction and limitations imposed thereby, it may not be so self-evident.

Second, OPM is not some “neutral” Federal Agency that reviews a Federal Disability Retirement application with dispassionate objectivity, ready to grant an “approval” because you “believe” your medical evidence is “sufficient” to meet the legal requirements as stated.  Sufficiency is the gatekeeper that denies many a Federal Disability Retirement case — and it is not a methodology that is satisfied by quantitative (volume) means, not even necessarily by qualitative standards; rather, it is the reviewer (i.e., the “Medical Specialist” at OPM) who determines by some unknown and unknowable standard when the goal-post has been crossed.

Thus, in an OPM Disability Denial Letter, one may read a reference to one’s doctor’s note or a quotation from a medical report from one’s doctor, and think, “Good, this is very supportive” —then, with an appended end to the paragraph stating, “Such medical evidence does not sufficiently meet the standards to qualify for OPM Disability Retirement”.  Huh?

Think about it this way: “Sufficiency” may mean different things to different audiences; for example, what is a “sufficient” amount of food for a lion, as opposed to a domesticated kitten?

OPM’s methodology is, at best, malleable, as language in law is likewise changeable.  It is good to know this for Federal and Postal employees who are either getting ready to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, or who are in the middle of a fight to obtain it; for, in the end, consulting with an OPM Disability Retirement lawyer allows you to arm yourself with knowledge for the battle that OPM’s Methodology in determining Federal Disability Retirement cases must be prepared, like any legal battle that involves “criteria” to be interpreted.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Information: Lip Service to Losses

It is admitted under the cover of gaining, and never standing alone as a mark of proud achievement.  To lose is to be forgotten; and while we give lip service in various ways — as in, “Oh, we learned so many valuable lessons from our losses”, or “Behind every success story is a failure of tenfold that allowed the person to learn and grow”, or ever the clincher: “It’s not whether you win or lose, it is how you play the game” — such losses always end up in the ash heaps of history’s forgotten events, while the “winners” move on into the next phase of life’s ongoing narrative.

Yet, we continue to perpetuate the myth that life’s lessons are best gained by the failures and disappointments that we encounter, and that is what “giving lip service” ultimately means: the insincerity of words in contrast to one’s belief as beheld close to one’s heart.  That is why it becomes increasingly difficult for this generation, as opposed to and in contrast with previous generations, to handle the stresses of daily failures and unmet expectations.

We cannot strip away the reality of the world throughout one’s upbringing and childhood, constantly telling every child that everyone is doing a “great job” and have “special talents” at every turn and hiccup of life’s turmoils, then expect them to be able to handle the daily and overwhelming stresses of life’s experiences that must by necessity include setbacks and the bumping into the harshness of stark cruelty of the world, then expect a placid, calm and positive view of experiential stability.

The harshness of reality is that, indeed, this is a hard life, and no matter how much technology may promise the easing pain and modernity the hope for a utopian society, the frailty of the human condition cannot be avoided.  That is the reality-check that a medical condition imposes — that we are not mere lesser gods among beasts of burden, but in fact have just as many burdens and are subject to the unexpected vicissitudes of life’s happenstances.

Thus, for Federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition begins to prevent the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, it is important to realize that filing a Federal Disability Retirement application may not meet the expectations of those who give lip service to the idea itself — i.e., that yes, the Federal Agency or the Postal Service will “support” you in your FERS Medical Disability Retirement application; that the Human Resource Office will do everything in their power to “accommodate” you; that your Supervisor or Manager is “sympathetic” to your situation, etc.

They may speak the words, but in their “heart of hearts” is that notion that filing for OPM Disability Retirement benefits is on the side of “losses” and not of categories empowered by “wins”, and therefore you must be careful in who you confide with when preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed with OPM.

Always remember, however, that consultation with an experienced attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law will guarantee that “lip service” will not be mere words, but a careful guidance and strategizing of that which is in your best interests, and with full confidentiality.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: The tangents that bind

They are often viewed as mere distractions – those activities that fail to follow the centrality and linear path of core, essential projects.  Or, more often than not, they are the wanderings and linguistic meanderings that make verbal communication all the more interesting – you know, that person that suddenly goes off on a tangent and tells an otherwise interesting story, but leaves you scratching your head with puzzlement and left dumbfounded.

In an even different sense, it can mean those quirky hobbies or sidelined projects; even of collecting matchbox cars, comic books or getting excited over stamps.  Stamps?  Matchbox cars?  Comic books for adults?  These are the tangents of life that bind.  We don’t often see them that way, because they are, in the larger scheme of things, somewhat insignificant, irrelevant and entirely superfluous to the greater population.  But what people often do not realize, is that tangents provide the glue that binds; for, if not for the distractions, hobbies and projects that give us a respite from the daily stresses of our lives, life itself would become a jumble of intolerable consequences.

Then, when a medical condition enters a picture, where the chronic pain or the psychiatric impact makes even those tangents no longer pleasurable, such a state of being then makes the rest of life unbearable.

For the Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker who suffers 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 position, it becomes quite apparent that when the tangents that bind no longer cement the worthwhile perspective of life’s meaningfulness, it is definitely time to consider preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement Benefits: The mud of life

Do we treat it like the fun of Play-Doh, or of unwanted waste that we screw up our faces in disgust and come crying to wash it off immediately?  What were we like as children – uncaring, carefree, without a mind to the soil that we mix with water and other wet substances about and around the orifices of human cavities; or, with a hint of a smidgeon that lightly touched upon the soles of our shoes, did we come crying to return to an antiseptic precondition of artificiality?

The mud of life is the stuff of movies; we can romanticize it, serialize it into a best-selling paperback novel (skipping over the formality of a hardback in order to sell to the masses), and even turn it into a weekly television series; but in the end, what it means is that we are stuck in a rut at a gas station in the middle of a desolate desert with no money and no prospects.

That is the metaphor of the phrase itself; there is little hope and even a fewer scintilla of a possibility of a potentiality to hope; many times removed, the mud of life is that period that we all hit now and again, where movement forward will never occur, and misery is the fated future forever and a day, beyond the drudgery of an eternity of toil, like the Myth of Sisyphus when the gods condemned him to an existential angst of eternal turmoil.

What can be done about the mud of life?

Like the quicksand in old jungle movies where the thrashing victim is unable to recognize that the greater the exertional motions applied, the sooner the doom of drowning, the best that one can do is to simply plod along, place one foot in front of the other, and somehow manage to get through each day.

Medical conditions tend to do that; they remind us that the mud of life comes more often than we want to realize, and it can be a state of earthly hell without the promise of tomorrow’s paradise.  Enduring it is the best way to get out of it, and then to systematically plan to move beyond.  But what constitutes the “beyond” is the question, for many.  Medical conditions make us realize that there is little point in tomorrow if you can’t even get through today; but even in that moment of being stuck in the mud of life, it is important to plan for tomorrow, if only because it allows you to get through the drudgery of today and seeing beyond to a point of some hope for the future.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from just such a mud of life, where a medical condition is preventing the Postal or Federal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of his or her position, the way out of the mud of life may be to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

Whether you were once a kid who loved playing in the mud, or came crying home because of the dirt of earth’s detritus, as an adult it is time to plan for your future, and preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application may be the best first step to move forward and wash away that mud of life’s misgivings.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Medical Retirement: The silence erupting in the room

You go out for a moment – perhaps to smoke a cigarette (do people actually do that these days?), to “freshen up” (is that necessarily a sexist presumption, in that women are the only ones who need to do so, or wasn’t it more likely just a euphemism to avoid the crass declaration that one has to “go to the potty”?) or just to get away from the din of dinner conversation; and, upon reentering the room those eyes look askance, askew, and away from you.

What happened?  Does suspicion abound, or is it merely paranoia that prevails?  Does sudden silence simultaneously synchronized with one’s reappearance constitute enough evidence to conclude that the gossip previously directed at someone other than yourself had shifted to include the reentering individual just previously having disappeared for a brief interlude?

Perhaps, instead, just before coming back to join the fray, there had been a pause in the conversation; or, it just so happened that everyone was taking a sip or gulp of whatever people were drinking, and as you reentered, the cumulative silence just so happened to prevail at the precise moment of appearance.  Coincidences of such natures do occur; yet, there is always that nagging feeling that the exact opposite is true – that, yes, they were all talking about you, and the embarrassing silence suddenly pervaded like a heavy London fog suddenly extracting its shroud of mystery and burden of conversation upon a topic well-worn by clawing swipes and innuendoes otherwise left undefended.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are suffering 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 position, that is often the fear and the gloom of dread, isn’t it?  That you – the absent Federal employee; the Postal worker who has filed for FMLA protection; the Federal employee who has been on extended LWOP – are the subject of constant gossip, and the grumblings and lies disseminated become the silence erupting in the room.

In the end, there is little that can be done about people who engage in gossip, whether in the bathroom, the kitchen or at the workplace; people will talk, and somehow believe that it makes them superior.

Ultimately, the best revenge is to prepare an effective Federal Disability Retirement application and file it through one’s agency or U.S. Postal Service H.R. Office, and submit it to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in order to escape from the din of cheap talk and chicanery, such that it becomes irrelevant whether, upon reappearance into a roundtable full of gossipers, the silence erupting in the room had to do with you, or just a mere coincidence of unexplainable phenomena coalescing just at the moment of reentrance.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire