OPM Disability Retirement: Communication

Communication is the key to all avenues of success.  It is important to communicate to the Office of Personnel Management the primary diagnoses, the significant symptoms; the extent of treatment modalities; the essential elements of one’s job, etc.  Communication can become ineffective, however, if too many insignificant and peripheral facts and information are conveyed.  If an OPM representative finds that there are too many generalities and fluff, the effectiveness of the essential medical condition may be lost in the vast volume of information. 

Further, it is important that the client and the attorney communicate; for it is the attorney who stands in the place of the Applicant, in conveying the important and essential information to the Office of Personnel Management, or to an Administrative Judge at the Merit Systems Protection Board.  Thus, if an individual is removed from an agency, that is critical and vital information which must be immediately conveyed to the Attorney, so that the attorney can make the decision, in consultation with the client, as to what to do with the information.  Communication is the key to success in every endeavor, and getting a Federal Disability Retirement application approved requires the utmost of communication.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal and Postal Service Disability Retirement: Patience is a Necessity

I have said this many, many times:  If patience is a virtue, then Federal employees must be the virtuous of all people, especially those who are filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits and waiting upon the Office of Personnel Management to make a decision.  Then, even after it is approved, it is often months and months until one’s case is finalized and taken out of the “interim” pay status to final pay status; or, if the case is denied at the First Stage and you have to file a Request for Reconsideration, submit additional medical and other evidence, file a Memorandum of Law to try and convince the Second Stage Representative that, indeed, contrary to what the First Stage Representative had argued, you have been in full compliance and meet with all of the criteria for eligibility for FERS or CSRS disability retirement benefits — which can take an additional 120 – 150 days.  Then, of course, if it is denied at the Reconsideration Stage of the process, you must file an appeal within thirty (30) days to the Merit Systems Protection Board, where the Administrative Judge is mandated by statute to conclude a case from the time of appeal within 120 days.  The entire “process”  — and this is precisely why I refer to the administrative procedure of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS as a “process” — requires and demands patience.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire