Why do lawyers, above most other professions, utilize the tool of hypotheticals? What is their evidentiary value, and in what way does it help to advance the cause of one’s case?
Say, for instance, you need an architect or an engineer (yes, yes, the humor here is that in speaking about hypotheticals, we are preparing to present one), would you be at all impressed if, after describing with precision the type of product you desire to have built, or in requesting a blueprint of a model house you are interested in, the architect or the engineer presents you with a hypothetical?
What, first of all, is a ‘hypothetical’? It is, first and foremost, a proposition of non-existence, but with components of reality that may or may not have occurred or existed except in partial or disparate forms, delineated in an attempt to make or prove a point. It is the tool of the attorney, just as the pencil and the blueprint are the resources of the architect, and the mathematical calculations the reliance of the engineer. Often, it is used by means of analogical content to prove a point and to enhance the evidence gathered.
Take, for example, the lawyer who defended a bank robber. He meets his client for the first time, and the criminal defense lawyer puts up a hand in order to stop his client from speaking, and says the following: “Now, take the following hypothetical, Mr. Dillinger: A man walks into a bank and hands a note to the teller that says, ‘Give me everything in your drawers.’ Now, that man was subsequently arrested. No cash was ever exchanged; no weapon was ever found. The question, then, is: What was meant by the words? Only you know. If, by way of a hypothetical, the man meant to obtain the contents of the teller’s drawer, it might mean 10 years in prison. If, on the other hand, the note meant to be a lewd proposal about the teller’s anatomy beneath her undergarments, it would likely be a misdemeanor offense. Now, Mr. Dillinger, which is it?”
Now, aside from some who would view such a presentation as somewhat unethical for “suggesting”, on the part of the lawyer, which intended “meaning” the defendant possessed at the time the note was passed, such a hypothetical is intended to denote the importance of hypotheticals within the purview of “the law”. Hypotheticals allow for individuals to see the differences in paradigms or examples; it allows for options by way of analogy.
For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition where 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, hypotheticals have quite likely become like unicorns and gnomes: no longer a figment of one’s imagination, but a reality that must be faced within a surreal universe of a Federal Agency or the Postal Service that fails to possess the humanity necessary in dealing with a person with failing health.
Words of platitudes are often spoken; and, perhaps, here and there, you come across someone at your agency that actually cares. But for the most part, such “caring” amounts to no more of a reality than mere hypotheticals; and when that realization comes about that the clash between hypotheticals and reality must be confronted, it is time to get down to the “nuts and bolts” and prepare, formulate and file a 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.
And, as an aside, you may be asking, What was Mr. Dillinger’s response to the lawyer’s hypothetical? He punched the lawyer in the mouth, stood up and said, “Jeez, I ain’t no pervert! Of course I wanted the money!”
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Reflections of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer | Tagged: abuse of power by federal management and chronic medical conditions, answer the questions on the reverse side of this opm disability questionnaire form, applying for opm medical retirement and best attorney federal, asking attorney Mcgill about medical requirements for federal disability benefits, bureau of prisons federal medical retirement lawyer, considering medical retirement after owcp 3rd opinion, cpol disability office medical ret. attorney, dealing with the RI30-1 pdf form after qualifying for medical retirement, determining if the condition on which you retired continues to be disabling under opm disability retirement rules, dod civilian medical retirement lawyer, effect on pending medical retirement claim of resigning from permanent gov position, employment during opm disability retirement, experienced fers & csrs attorney opm fers disability retirement benefit claims serving federal employees in new jersey, extension of no-layoff protection for disability retirement when filing for federal or postal medical retirement, feca medical retired for sleep apnea lawyer, federal employee excessive medically related absences lawyer, federal government and disability resignation, federal lawyers for disability in alabama, federal workers comp attorney ptsd assistance, fedmer medical annuity pension, fers and csrs disability retirement attorney for alabama residents, fers disability attorney helping tampa area federal employees and the rest of the country, fers disability retirement arthritis lawyer, fers retirement physicians, filing within the time frame to file opm medical disability retirement, finding attorney for ptsd misconduct allegations in federal postal employment, florida federal employee medical retirement attorney, free first time consultation with fers lawyer, getting lawyer to deal with national reassessment program usps, government supervisor abuse of authority and panic attacks, health insurance and other considerations before taking early retirement, heart disease or seizures to provide medical certification stating they won't be a hazard, hostile work environment usps and metal conditions being exacerbated, how to get federal disability based on depression, ice owcp medical retirement benefits lawyer, lawyer blog about fers disability retirement and it’s relationship with other collateral issues (owcp ssdi veras etc.), list of accepted disabilities opm see explanation medical conditions link, looking for resignation example from federal employer due to disabilities, medial removal and retirement process usps attorney, medically retire from government with assistance of nationally recognized federal retirement attorney, modified job offer and real accommodation for fers disability retirement purposes, nj attorneys knowledgeable in laws about federal government medical retirement, opm disability retirement assistance, opm disability retirement bop employees attorney, opm hostile work environment guidance for federal employees with pending medical pension applications, opm regs on light duty, opm specialized attorney help with standard form 3112 for disability retirement, opm workmans comp disability retirement, owcp doctor and opm lawyer for retiring early, postal disability approval chance higher when hiring experienced fers medical retirement attorney, postal employee claiming carpal tunnel work and other illnesses, postal employees has sore shoulder need fers attorney, postal workers with shoulder injuries resources, repetitive motion injury letter carrier postal service, requesting fers disability applicant statement example to attorney, resigning from federal service health reasons, resisting process to quit a federal job due to disabilities or injuries, returning to work after being off because of heart conditions or seizures in the post office, sample fers disability statements or hiring a fers disability retirement attorney, signing opm form for federal resignation for poor health and walk out empty handed?, standard operating procedures disability employment attorney services, the u.s. postal service is continually violating federal disability law with some return to work forms, top attorney for medical retirement civilian federal and postal employees, ttb federal employee stress related disability, voluntary early retirement option versus disability retirement, when you are being surveilled and harassed by postal inspectors while on owcp | Leave a comment »
Federal Disability Retirement: The Ledger of Life
The Ledger was once that oversized binder which recorded the economic transactions for various purposes — of maintaining income and outlays; of keeping an accounting of various details in one’s life, whether of activities in business or even of one’s habits and patterns of existence. Somehow, it doesn’t seem the same as typing such information into a computer, or of buying a software that categorizes and makes everything neat and simple.
That old Ledger that had to be lugged from one place to another reflected the weight of seriousness just in the act of lifting it; and when you opened the front cover and turned the pages where the latest entry still emitted the scent of ink still drying, one sensed the permanency of recordation as a trait of relevance that could never be erased.
And what of the metaphor — of one’s “Ledger of Life” — a recordation of the transactions that one has engaged; of the weightiness of that placed on one side of the ledger as compared to the negative notations appearing on the opposite side; of the image of St. Peter as the gatekeeper reviewing the annotated columns to determine if you “made it” — all because “The Ledger” reflects the value of your actions during the course of a lifetime?
Do we even think in those terms, anymore? Or, while the dusty old books that used to be kept beneath the wooden grains of counters in dark and dank workshops were left behind when first the technology of modernity made for obsolescence of such anachronistic record keeping, did we then just revert to making mental notes for the things we did or did not do?
Most of us, if asked if we are “eligible” to pass through St. Peter’s exclusive club, would respond thus: “Oh, all in all, I have been a pretty good person and so, Yes, I believe I would qualify.” And so we approach most things in a similar vein: We give ourselves a “pass” and believe that the Ledger of Life would favor our eligibility status.
And so it is with Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer form a medical condition and need to file for FERS Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Because you suffer from the medical condition and believe that the medical condition cannot but be proof of eligibility, so you believe OPM cannot but see what you see. But filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is a paper-presentation to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and must be proven by a preponderance of the evidence.
It is very rare that any Federal Disability Retirement application is a “slam-dunk” case, or even an “easy” one; and like the Ledger of Life that we have left behind in the dusty heaps of bookshelves long forgotten, preparing an effective FERS Disability Retirement application is not just a simple transaction to be annotated into columns of neat book keeping, but a bureaucratic process that must be proven and argued for — somewhat like the Ledger of Life that must be submitted to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates of Heaven.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Reflections of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer | Tagged: advise from opm lawyer on disability retirement physician statement, after the usps disability denial insufficient medical documentation, atrial fibrillation fers medical retirement attorney, attorney serving disabled federal employees in massachusetts, awol for medical reasons federal employment, biased disability reasonable accommodation committee in post office and what my options are, dealing with inaccurate information on standard form 3112d with an attorney a board, dealing with supervisors negative comments on request for fers disability retirement, degenerative disc disease on postal employee, disabilities bop retirement benefits, disability leave for postal employees, disciplinary actions and disabilities discrimination fers attorney, disciplinary actions for awol medical leave fers lawyer, documentation needed to show usps disability retirement, federal employee disability retirement attorney serving in arizona area, federal employee disability rights under fers, fers application for immediate medical retirement, fers benefits if resign for physical or mental impairments, fers opm boise Idaho retirement attorney, fitness for duty examination postal employee with arthritis, forced fers medical retirement by us postal service, free first time consultation with fers lawyer, harassment in post office by management and stress leave, how to resign from the postal service if I have a disabling condition, ice owcp medical retirement benefits lawyer, if a usps employee is terminated for mental stress but the excuse by management is criminal misconduct, law blog on tips to complete sf 3112 attorney for federal employees, looking for resignation example from federal employer due to disabilities, ma federal disability retirement lawyer, mdd help with depressive condition in federal employees, medical documentation needed to show or prove usps medical retirement, mental conditions postal service incapacity opm pension, mental disabled designation criteria in the usps, modified job assignments medical limitation postal attorney, office of personnel management retirement csrs disability, opm advanced sick leave denial considerations, opm definition hostile work environment for retirement purposes, opm lawyer for help in fers disability retirement process, opm medical retirement for lumbago and low back pain, opm schedule of rating disabilities, paperwork to file for fers disability and expert advice, postal employee terminated unfairly mental stress and anxiety, postal service letter to sign for disabilities, postal service ps form-50 termination proposal for excessive sick leave, power of attorney signature in fers disability attorney contact attorney mcgill first first time consultation is always free, qualifying for a disability retirement under opm fers, removal medical inability to perform federal position attorney, resignation not advisable fers medical retirement lawyer, resigning from federal service health reasons, separation from federal employment medical inability to perform position chores, supervisors at postal service creating a hostile environment for usps employees, suspension of disabled employee fers disability lawyer, terminated from government employment for physically inability to perform tasks, termination proposal of postal employee with disabilities without opm pension benefits, unfair termination of usps employee for misconduct but real reason is mental stress, usps owcp disability retirement forms after workers comp nurse’s return to work, when advance sick leave is denied in the usps what can I do next?, when dealing with federal medical retirement forms know what law says you need to prove, when sedentary postal positions for light duty won’t work, when you are being surveilled and harassed by postal inspectors while on owcp, workers comp with usps long term sickness, working while filing federal retirement disability | Leave a comment »