Federal Disability Retirement Law: The Exponent

In math, it is the symbol indicating the operation of raising from the base.  In modernity, it is the quickened pace of the life we live, beyond the scope of our own humble efforts to control.  In reality, most of life passes by within a whirlwind of work and sleep, with small interludes of memorable pieces of times spent otherwise.

Sanity is challenged exponentially; stress has increased exponentially; the lights, the sounds, the constant noise from the streets — all, a greater volume of exponential capacity beyond what the human ear can sustain, resist or otherwise bear.

Have our bodies and minds kept up — exponentially — with the increase of the world around us?  Or, do we remain within the evolutionary accident of the slow but steady adaptive genes trying to allow for the natural law of “survival of the fittest” to catch up, all the while merely remaining where we were tens of thousands of years ago — of the exponent of “1”?

Federal Disability Retirement is a law which recognizes the incompatibility between the medical condition — an exponent of many — as against the type of duties required of a position.  Incompatibility occurs when the medical condition(s) suffered are no longer compatible with continuing in a position where the various elements of the position can no longer be satisfied.  It is based upon the identical principle as the exponent — the contrast between what is required in modernity as opposed to the capacity of the human mind and body.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition no longer allows the Federal or Postal worker to continue in his or her career or job because of the incompatibility between the medical condition and the position/job, consider that the exponential incompatibility between the chronic medical condition and the positional requirements may be the basis for preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS.

Contact a FERS Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and consider increasing the chances of an approval of your Federal Disability Retirement application by hiring a Federal lawyer who specializes in the practices area of OPM Disability Retirement Law, thereby increasing that symbol indicating the operation from the base — the exponent — resulting in a successful approval.

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.

 

OPM Retirement from Medical Conditions: Proof to Conclusion

It has been pointed out by many philosophers that Socratic Method is not the manner in which most people conduct their lives in arriving at beliefs.

Rather than the traditionally-accepted engagement of searching for evidence and analyzing such evidence, then arriving at a conclusion based upon the strength of that evidence, the very opposite occurs: We first form our own conclusions, then accept any and all evidence which tends to support that belief, simultaneously excluding and ignoring any semblance of evidence which may contradict our firmly-held beliefs.

“Proof to conclusion” is the supposed paradigm; in reality, “conclusion without proof” is the working norm.

And, perhaps, part of the problem as to why we operate in this manner is because we are a nation of lawyers, and why the adversarial system is also “supposed” to operate in a dialectical manner where contending “proofs” are meant to clash and contradict, until the “truth” somehow dominates the adversarial contentiousness and makes its appearance in a persuasive manner; yet, somehow, it doesn’t seem to work in the way it is supposed to.

In reality, what law school teaches is the following:  “Here is the conclusion we want to reach; now, go and find the legal precedents which justify the conclusion which we have already reached.”

For Federal Government employees and U.S. Postal Service workers who are contemplating preparing an effective Federal/Postal Disability Retirement application under FERS, this manner of counter-rational — or, reverse-thinking — can be a detriment in putting together a sufficient Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

On the one hand, “Conclusion-then-proof” is somewhat of a “given”, inasmuch as the “conclusion” has already been reached:  That you have an impeding medical condition requiring the submission of a Federal Disability Retirement application, and the “proof” must thereafter be obtained.  On the other hand, the legal criteria required by Federal Disability Retirement Law looks for the Socratic Method — of providing proof, then allowing the governing body (OPM for Stages 1 & 2; the MSPB for Stage 3 of the Federal Disability Retirement process) to reach its own conclusion.

Thus, both the “traditional” method (otherwise known as the Socratic Method) as well as the counter-normative method are involved.

In either case, it is important to have the guidance of a Federal Disability Attorney who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement Law, where both the Socratic Method and the Counter-Normative Method can be employed, where — in the end — the “proof to conclusion” can stand a chance to get an approval for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS.

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.

 

OPM Disability Retirement: The Fabrication of Certainty

There are innumerable truths of certainty, mostly of fabrication and artificiality, and much of it meaningless and of inconsequential inanity.

For example, you can join a local chapter of the Flat-Earth Society, and so long as you contain your discussions about the flatness of the earth within the confines of the society’s reaches (however limited that may be), your conviction that the earth is flat can be maintained, reserved, and with vigorous belief, sustained.  You can even go out into the greater world and retain such a conviction, and believe it with certainty.

On the other hand, it would be unwise to entertain certain types of fabricated certainties — such as the belief that you are a super-human being who will incur no harm if you run in front of a bus traveling at 50 miles per hour — leaving aside even a lesser speed.  The test as against the objective world and the rules of force and biology simply will not cooperate or comply with such fabrication of certainty.

Human beings have an unlimited capacity to create and manufacture fabrications of certainty, even if they have absolutely no correspondence or connection to the outside world.  You can even believe, with absolute certainty, Russell’s statement that the “King of France is bald”, and as there is no King in France, and thus the individual without a referential-point in the universe cannot be bald (because a non-existent person cannot possess the characteristic of “baldness”) — and yet, because the “sense” and “meaning” of the statement can be comprehended, we can walk about the world with the fabrication of certainty without any consequences in the real world.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition compels and necessitates the proper and effective preparation, formulating and filing of an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the recognition that fabrications of certainties can defeat a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS is important.

Always be clear on the certainty of “the law”; review the medical records and reports for any inaccuracies which may defeat your disability retirement application; and make sure that there is a correspondence between your Statement of Disability on SF 3112A and on the medical documents to be submitted.

For, in the end, the fabrication of certainty is fine only so long as the insularity of one’s world doesn’t extend beyond the tip of one’s growing nose.  And one more thing: For all Flat-Earth Society members, it is not recommended that you travel too far on a ship, lest you fall off of the edge of the earth.

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.

 

FERS Disability Retirement Law: Disappearing Fences

That pithy old adage; of “good fences make good neighbors”; it is a saying which old people used to say in delineating acceptable social norms; of an ethos which was generally known, frowned upon when violated, and reflects an antiquated time in our society when everyone “knew” their place.

In modernity, the large corporations have convinced us all that fences are unnecessary; that boundaries are meaningless; that bifurcations no longer apply. Instead, to be “connected” is of utmost importance, and loss of connectivity — even for a day, an hour, a minute — means that your entire source of self-identity may have become expunged from the ethereal universe.

It is all well and good for the wealthy to declare that there should not exist a “division” between one’s personal and professional lives; that your job should be enjoyed as much as in your personal sphere; or that taking calls, doing work, etc. while on vacation or on off-days is completely acceptable.  Fences have all but disappeared.  What was their purpose?

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, erecting and maintaining — even building new ones — is important; for, in the end, one’s “quality of life” begins with maintaining one’s health and well-being, but when that health deteriorates and cannot keep up with the demands of work, it might be time then to contact a FERS Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, if only to establish again that, indeed, good fences make good neighbors.

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.

 

FERS Disability Attorney Blog: Life With Abandon

Some would say that it is the only way to live life; others, that caution and thoughtfulness before proceeding is the wiser course of action.  Are the choices merely a reflection of age, as opposed to a life lived resulting from upbringing or personality?  Does youth and inexperience reflect the yearning to live life with abandon, whereas old age brings about the cautionary tale of the brother to the prodigal son who stayed behind and attended to his duties?

Upon watching a young child play with abandon, an old man remarked to the concerned mother, “Life will teach the young lad soon enough, and the cynic will foster from the experience of abandon”.

But do we all learn from experience?  Why do we idolize the successful person who “goes for broke”, and quickly forget the ones who do that but “fail” in life?  Do most of us relate to the football team that tries to preserve its 3-point lead in the fourth quarter, but loses in the last 30 seconds of the game because of cautionary trepidation? Do we all think we are that quarterback who plays with abandon, or the one who tries to preserve the lead?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition no longer allows the Federal or Postal employee to continue in his or career in the Federal government, “life with abandon” is sometimes merely the next step in one’s career and life by preparing a Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application under FERS, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, may be the Fourth quarter pass which wins the game.  It is all in the way and manner you see things.

Contact a FERS Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and consider whether filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application may not be the admixture of both — a cautionary life with abandon, done the right way.

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 & Postal Disability Retirement: Whac-A-Mole

Life itself is like that, and perhaps that is why we enjoy the quick resolution — of problems arising, and the ability to attend to each eruption with a quick “whack!”  Or, perhaps the attractiveness is ensconced in our fantasies and wishes: That we wish life was merely a matter of moles appearing and that each problem can be resolved with a quick hit on the head.

Quick reactions are required for playing the game well; those who hesitate fail at it — but that is the receptive popularity of the game itself; that no one actually “loses”, but merely reveals a contrast as against someone who may be quicker than you are.

In real life, however, only half of the game represents reality — the half where problems erupt suddenly, out of nowhere, unexpectedly, and which cannot be predicted as to which direction it may come, how it may appear, what the problem is, when it will arise, etc.  The other half of the game — of whacking the “problem” (i.e., the mole) and having it disappear quickly — fails to represent adequately the reality of life.

Life is a set of problems to resolve; each problem, however, is rarely one by which a quick resolution can be attained.  That is also true of the Federal Disability Retirement process — yes, the end result (obtaining an approval of a Federal Disability Retirement claim through OPM) may resolve the issue of one’s employment, but the process itself is a long bureaucratic morass which presents multiple problems throughout.

Contact an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and let the attorney deal with each mole with a legal “whack” which is effective and applicable.

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.

 

OPM Disability Retirement Benefits: Paintings Without Words

The cave paintings in Lascaux are apparently a stunning display of prehistoric art created by Paleolithic Man some 17000 years ago — well before Christ, before the Roman or Greek civilizations; before the written word.  The depictions are of animal figures and of man; but without words.

Of course, if you visit an art gallery, every painting is “without words” — except, perhaps, of the title given to the painting, like “The Boy in a Red Vest” or “The Starry Night”, or even, “Self-Portrait”, etc.  But these cave paintings lack even a title.  They are silent — truly in the sense of lacking noise, explanation, etc.

Various “experts” have apparently rendered their interpretations as to why they were drawn and what they depict; the “meaning” of the art.  Why did such men (why do we presume they were done by men, and not by women?) paint upon the walls of that cave?  What did they intend?

Such interpretations may or may not be true; one shall never know, because the context of the once-vibrant community has been lost.  They remain as paintings without words because the words were lost long ago, and so the meaning behind the depiction — what gave it “meaning” — has been lost forever.

It is similar to the feeling and sense that a Federal or Postal employee has when a medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job — the “meaning” behind the work is lost, because the functionality to perform the work has been separated from the ability to engage in that functionality.

Contact an OPM Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of recovering the meaning behind the work you once loved; for, like paintings without words, work without freedom from pain and turmoil results in a profound sense of loss.

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.

 

OPM Medical Disability Retirement: Self-Consciousness

It is a state of heightened awareness of one’s self.  At what point does an individual first experience such an encounter?

For, the newborn, the toddler, the young lad — it is through the encounters with the objective world, fully conscious, certainly, but unaware yet of the reversal and looping back into one’s own being.  Some would posit that the state of self-awareness cannot occur until there first exists a “self” of some sort to begin with.  Thus, a newborn cannot be self-conscious because there is not enough of the “stuff” of one’s self in order to be aware.

Thoughts, beliefs, memories, a history of having been — these, and much more, in their aggregate and totality, comprise the molding and making of a “self”, and awareness of one’s self — of self-consciousness — can occur only when enough of the self has been developed in order to realize the very existence of one’s self within a universe of many others.

In the end, self-consciousness is merely a state of heightened awareness of another being existing within a world of multiple beings, who happens to be one’s self.  Too much of such self-awareness — a preoccupation, as it were, or an obsession to the exclusion of the needed encounter outside of one’s self — can become unhealthy.

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, becoming self-conscious as to one’s medical condition and the state of existence in relation to one’s career and Federal Agency or Postal unit is a natural phenomena — precisely because of the impact of one’s medical condition upon one’s self.

Yet, such preoccupation must ultimately be translated back to a direct engagement with the world, by preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS.

Contact an OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of looping back away from self-consciousness, and engagement with the world around.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

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