The 2nd OPM and 3rd MSPB Stages: The True Reconsideration

Filing for a FERS Disability Retirement application is a long, arduous, and complicated bureaucratic process.  Preferably, one would like to obviously be approved at the First (INITIAL) Stage of the Process.  But these days as the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is not easily inclined to approve a case at the first stage, it is the Second (Reconsideration Stage) which is a crucial and important event in the process.

At the Reconsideration Stage, 2 important factors are presented:  First, you have the chance to correct any alleged deficiencies which OPM points out, and; Second, and just as importantly, you can begin to prepare the way for an MSPB Judge to see the strength and coherence of your medical case.  For, if OPM denies you FERS Disability Retirement benefits a second time, it will then have to be appealed to the Third Stage of the process — an appeal to the U.S Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

But as most opportunities are presented, the best way to approach this 2nd OPM Stage is to see it as a dual-purpose response:  First as a response to OPM’s Denial, and concurrently, as a legal argument to the potential MSPB Judge.

Furthermore, what OPM never tells FERS applicants is that a further “reconsideration” — a re-reconsideration — will occur if OPM denies the case a second time and an appeal is filed to the MSPB.

This is because the OPM Legal Specialist who will represent OPM at the MSPB will automatically review the case in its entirety, and re-reconsider it anew from an entirely different perspective – that from a legally sufficient perspective — in the same way, that the MSPB Judge will view it.

This is because the MSPB is a legal forum and not a bureaucratic forum —which brings us back o the “second” point in responding to an OPM Denial at the Reconsideration Stage — not only to correct any alleged deficiencies pointed out by the Office of Personnel Management, but moreover, to make persuasive legal arguments which point to the legally sufficient cogency of your application.

Thus, the Reconsideration Response should always include a Responsive legal memorandum arguing the applicable case law in preemptively preparing for the MSPB.  This not only prepares the way for arguing the merits of your case with the MSPB Administrative Judge but also gives a warning to OPM that your case will be legally invincible if and when it is appealed to the MSPB.

The best approach is to do things well from the very beginning, but even if your disability claim was already denied at the First Stage, for more reasons now, you need to contact a FERS Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement law and prepare your disability case for the first appeal and reconsideration, but who also will assist you with the preparation of the “true reconsideration” stage — the re-review at the MSPB.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Specialized attorney exclusively representing Federal and Postal employees to secure their FERS Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

 

Federal Disability Retirement: Life is Never Perfect

Is that a rather mundane truism?  Yet, we project upon other lives and assume that “perfection” has been attained by those other than our own; but is the proportionality reflected by the unhappiness we experience within the context of specific problems?

Thus do we rationalize:  If we have financial problems, we believe that anyone who is wealthy lives a life of perfection; if one of loneliness, of public figures who appear to be happily betrothed; if disjointedness with one’s career, then of fantasies of successful businessmen, CEOs and other mega-billionaires; and if of physical incapacity, of Curry or LeBron, projected as teammates, or at the very least, soulmates of a kindred kind.

But of those projected fantasies of lives unknown — are their lives of perfection granted?

That was, of course, the argument against Anselm’s Ontological Argument for the existence of God — that we extrapolate from reality and cull together the concept of “perfection”, when in reality it is merely a fiction, a chimera, a theoretical construct from our fantasies and dreams.  In the end, we all know that there is never a perfect life — only lives which, in their totality of a considered life, may approach a semblance of a life lived well.

But even a life lived well is subject to the lottery of mishaps — for, consider health, the deterioration of it, and that which we take for granted; and for the Federal or Postal employee who suffers from deteriorating health, perfection is beyond the reach and grasp of any fantasy; and instead, the best thing that can be hoped for is to prepare, formulate and file an effective FERS Disability Retirement claim through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

In filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS, perfection is never the goal; rather, it is the acceptance of an imperfect life but one better served by being able to focus upon one’s health, for a hopeful tomorrow.

Contact a FERS Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and leave the concept of a “Perfect Life” to the fantasies yet unresolved, and instead, focus upon the reality of your life today, where a recognition can be embraced that no life is ever perfect, but can be better by obtaining an OPM Medical Retirement.

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 Help: The Get-Through Monday

Monday is the “get through” day.  All other days of the week, except perhaps Friday, comprise a period of steady industry — of the “get-through day” now behind us and the week’s end still afar; and so we resign ourselves to the drudgery of daily requirements.  Is work so terrible?  Is it merely a means to an end — of making a living; paying the bills; doing it in order to have a respite on the weekends?

There are periods in the history of American Labor where different perspectives on work and life prevailed:  Once, where simply having a “good paying job” was thought to be the apex of a good life; other times, when young people were exhorted to have a “passion” for what you do; and in modernity, of an approach to life where — since life is too short (although, longevity has never had a better fame than today, where healthy diets, antibiotics and other benefits have clearly extended life-spans beyond prior eras) — we shouldn’t spend too much time on labors of drudgery where lack of self-satisfaction does not prevail.

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, the “Get-Through Monday” is often the toughest day of all, because the weekend is no longer enough to recuperate from the previous week’s challenges.

And whether we live in a period where work is considered merely a means to an end, the very means of work have become an impossibility for the Federal or Postal worker — not by choice, but because of a medical condition which cannot be helped.

Consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and begin the process of preparing, formulating and filing an effective OPM Disability Retirement application by contacting an experienced lawyer.

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 under FERS: Stress of the Moment

From a distance, we can all handle stress.  It is that time and removal from the moment that makes all of the difference, is it not?  Afterwards — after the explosive anger, the sudden quietude or the paralyzing fear — we reflect and wonder as to what created such a stressful reaction.  Or, years later, one may recall that it was a moment of “something”, but rarely remember the exact details as to what prompted or triggered it.  It is often the combination of multitudes of factors: Too little sleep; overworked; a sense of isolation; a feeling that no one around you really cares, etc.

Then, when a medical condition enters upon the scene, all other factors tend to become exaggerated, magnified and exacerbated.  One’s health and deteriorating medical condition always adds to the stress.  It is like the old adage about a fish not realizing that it is swimming in water; when we have our health, we barely recognize it; when we lose it, it becomes the focal animus of our daily lives.  Without our health, there is no “stress of the moment”; rather, every moment is a stressful experience.

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, it is time to consider filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS, through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, in order to reverse the course taken — that of going back to experiencing the stress of the moment, as opposed to living a life of unending, unendurable and eternal stresses throughout each and every waking moment.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Medical Retirement for Federal Employees: On the Verge

We often think in those terms, don’t we?  We are “on the verge” of doing something — whether of minor significance, major importance or of negligible impact.

All other species of living entities simply act and react; they do not engage in linguistic meanderings by discussing future events of unaccomplished deeds, but simply engage in the act of performance itself.  “I am on the verge of doing X” or even the further distancing statement that “X is planning to be on the verge of Y” — all statements of future intentions based upon planned coordination of unfulfilled motives.

Often, it is the perfect set of circumstances that one waits for, or a key element that remains missing before the initiation of the decision to act occurs.  To remain on the cliff’s edge, or right before the starting line, or even that twilight’s moment before one awakens, begins to stir and is aware of one’s surroundings just before the lengthy slumber of the night’s quietude turning into the frenzy of the day’s activities — that is where the “verge” remains.  Then, there are those for whom the act is never accomplished and one remains perpetually “on the verge”.

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, don’t let being “on the verge” destroy your health or potentiality left in limbo to seek other opportunities.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement is an act, not a thought, and when too much thinking betrays the medical condition by overriding good sense, it is time to consult with an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and get some sound advice on whether to remain “on the verge” of making a decision to act, or to remain with one’s Agency or Postal Service while deteriorating into a perpetual state of despondency.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Legal Representation on Federal Disability Retirement Claims: The simple life

We all crave it; most of us dream of it; some try to implement it.  The “simple” life is the one that runs throughout the cultural history of Americana; from those days of Walden’s Pond and the life proposed by Thoreau and the transcendentalists, to the hippie communes in the Sixties and the movement back to agrarian life of more recent vintage, the desire to “downsize”, simplify and go back to the harkening calls of less complexity, less technology and less everything has always remained throughout.

Yet, “simple” does not mean “easy”, and one has to only visit an Amish farm to recognize that where technology does indeed save time (an hour’s commute by a car can be twice that in a horse and buggy), shedding one’s self of the daily convenience of modernity is no simple matter.

Do we even know what it means to go back to a “simple life”?  Or, by that concept and idea, do we merely mean the peeling away of complexities that have formed in our subjective states of mind, like barnacles that accumulate on the underside of boats over years and timeless travel through life’s trials and tumults, only to have a period of need where chipping them off becomes a necessity?

Television shows and various movies provide for nostalgic images that stir an emotional sense within all of us – of those days of lazy summer when childhoods were enveloped within a haze of timeless carefree thoughts, like so many waves rolling upon the warmth of sand dunes and castles created that only crumble once the day is over.  But that is the point, is it not – of a fictional state of things, of a world that is looked upon with fondness but probably never was, except in the imaginary memories of writers who realize the need to have a hope for a simpler life, but recognize that the reality is much more complex that they would have us believe.

Notice the subtle differentiation – between the “simple life” and the “simpler life”?  That is all we can ultimately hope for – not the former, but perhaps the latter.

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 the Federal or Postal job, preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application will often constitute the requirement of striving towards the objective of a simpler life.

The medical condition itself may be complex; the interaction with one’s agency or the postal facility within the context of that medical condition and “dealing” with them about needing to attend to one’s medical condition – all of that is complex and complicated.  And, while a Federal Disability Retirement application does not guarantee a “simple” life, what it does do is to provide an avenue to simplify the greater complexities of life’s trials by preparing for an uncertain future that only seems to be getting more and more complicated.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal Disability Retirement: Life’s perverse fullness

As children, many are taught that life’s promise is unlimited in potentiality, full in its discourse of uncharted waters, and expansive in its promise for tomorrow.  Somewhere, in middle-to-late years, we begin to have a somewhat more “balanced” view: not of fullness merely painted with hope and promise, but with graffiti unasked for, undesired and unwanted: the perverse side of fullness.

Life can indeed contain and present a “full plate” (as metaphors go), but the question then becomes: What is on that plate?  When a potluck dinner is coordinated, there is an interesting phenomenon that occurs, where judgments are fairly quickly made by the systematic depletion of certain foods, and the untouched portions carefully avoided.  Anonymity is crucial to the success of the endeavor itself, but defensiveness is easily assuaged by the general rules of etiquette when asked and confronted: “Oh, I plan on getting seconds” or, “My plate is too small to get everything the first round!”

Excepting social pressures and avoiding hurt feelings, we all tend to gravitate towards that which we desire; yet, we also put on our plates the food items that “balance” the diet – with knowledge and admonitions that certain foods are “healthy” for us, while avoiding those that we have specific allergic reactions to, or otherwise leave us with uncomfortable residual gastronomic pains.

Every now and again, of course, we take on too much – or, as the saying goes and the wisdom that we impart to our children, “My eyes are too big for my stomach”.  It is then that we surreptitiously look for the hidden garbage bin, and infelicitously dump the “leftovers” beneath the mountain of other paper plates, and quickly scurry away from the scene of the crime committed.  Yet, why we fret over an infraction of taking on too much, is often a mystery; is it because waste balanced by greedy overreach combines to reveal a character flaw?  Or is it much simpler than that – that we are often too hard on ourselves?  Taking on “too much” is not a crime; it is simply an anomaly in the general dictum of life’s perverse fullness.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers who are at a critical juncture where filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits – whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset – becomes a necessity, it is often the case that one’s “life-plate” has become overburdened: work, career, personal obligations, medical conditions, effects of surgery, etc. – the balance can no loner be maintained.  Something has to “give”, and whatever that “something” is, it usually ends up further impacting one’s health.

Filing for OPM Disability Retirement benefits should not be forever stuck on the “pause” button; the longer it stays in a rut, the greater opportunity for deterioration and detriment to one’s health.  We often wait until it is almost “too late”; but just remember that, where life’s perverse fullness includes one’s deteriorating health, it is never a good thing to leave that which is most important, untouched – one’s health.  And, as Federal Disability Retirement is a means to allowing for one’s health to improve so that, perhaps, one day, a second career, vocation, or further productivity can be achieved, so preparing 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, is often the portion of the potluck meal that requires first attention.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement: Writing another’s life

It is all well and good to write the narrative of one’s life, and to live it in accordance with the prose and poetry (or lack thereof) which we embrace; but to write another’s life — it makes one pause, hesitate and move with trepidation.  For, we ask ourselves:  Of what right do we have?  Is that best for the other person?  We make such a mess of our own lives; what burden of responsibility must we undertake in order to shoulder the writing of another’s life?  But that is precisely what we do when we have children, isn’t it?

Without any direction, few examples (assuming the author is one of the fortunate ones who had good parents in which to mirror a paradigm of reflective and transference of constructive behavior), and certainly no blueprint to follow, we blindly accept the unformed clay of humanity’s beginnings, and assume the responsibility of creating and conforming an unfinished product to determine the future course of one’s community, the greater society, and the historical relevance of an expanding civilization.

Gee, that sounds easy enough.  And though we may have made complete messes of our own lives, we somehow believe that we have “rights” and first privileges when it comes to control, command and conforming consolidation concerning creativity confounding colorful conceptual constructs in casting the mold (sorry, but the alliteration didn’t hold for the last couple of words in the sequence).

Then, of course, there comes a time when such narration of another’s upbringing begins to recede, until finally, cessation through maturity, rebelliousness or separation of ways comes to fruition; and the next generation of messes left undone continues in a perpetural progression of regressive deterioration.

Prison workers and correctional officers must feel this way, as they are daily attempting to write the life of others by restraining and reformulating (or trying to) those very failures that were allowed because of priority of rights.  But beyond raising children, how many of us possess the opportunity, or responsibility, of writing another’s life, and if we do, how seriously do we undertake that project?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who must file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the writing of another’s life must be undertaken despite that “other” life being one’s own.

In doing so, objectivity must be embraced, and this is often a difficult task, if not an impossible one.  For, in formulating a Federal Disability Retirement case, the narration of proving one’s evidence by a preponderance of the evidence must reflect a standard of objectivity on SF 3112A, Applicant’s Statement of Disability, and must not meander into a diatribe of one’s own musings and meaningless messes.

Writing one’s own life is difficult enough; writing another’s life, when that other life is the one which is owned by one’s own life, is beyond being a writer’s hardship, but a necessity nonetheless if the Federal or Postal worker wants to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application through OPM.  But, then, we were all great successes as parents, weren’t we?

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement Attorney: The Second, Reconsideration Stage

It is not a reflection upon the validity of one’s medical condition; a denial from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management can mean multiple things, not the least of which may include:  insufficient proof failing to rise to the level of satisfying the preponderance of the evidence standard.

Federal Disability Retirement applications are compiled in a myriad of manners; yes, the standard forms themselves tend to compel a certain semblance of conformity, but ultimately the strength of a case will depend upon the supportive documentation attached, and here is “the rub”:  there still exists the “human element” in the reviewing analysis of a Federal Disability Retirement application.

Yes, certain sets of legal criteria are applied (but who and how are they interpreted in their application?); and while satisfaction of the legal criteria is supposed to be determined by the general principle of “preponderance of the evidence“, who and what complies with meeting such a standard?  How is such satisfaction determined?  Such questions, of course, imply a human element in the administrative process of an OPM Disability Retirement review, and whether we like it or not, reveals an underlying connection to imperfection and fallibility.

There is no mathematical algorithm of mechanistic applications which will completely correct the underlying problems inherent in human review within the context of a bureaucratic process.  Fortunately, however, the process itself contains a self-corrective device: different stages and levels of review, which allows for the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker to provide additional supportive documentation in order to reinforce and strengthen one’s Federal Disability Retirement case.

There are limitations, however, and that is why “corrective action” at the Second, Reconsideration Stage of the administrative process of Federal Disability Retirement is just that — it is to “correct” the mistakes, lapses and inherent lack identified in the original Federal Disability Retirement packet.  The “limitations” are set by law, and are determined by how one characterizes one’s medical conditions in the Statement of Disability as perpetuated on SF 3112A.

Care should always be taken, of course, in the initial preparation of a Federal Disability Retirement application, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, and before it is forwarded through one’s agency to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  But in the end, one must recognize that the entirety of the administrative process is one which involves multiple stages of a bureaucratic procedure, and the Second, Reconsideration Stage is merely another level of self-regulating refinement to ensure that the human element, including mistakes and misapplication of the law, is expunged to the extent possible, and instead, that the objective application of the law is uniformly dispensed in order to reach a statistically acceptable algorithm of fairness and impartial determination.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire