OPM Disability Retirement: The 1-Year Rule
Periodically, I remind everyone of the various “1-year” rules which govern Federal Disability Retirement issues under FERS & CSRS. Since there are multiple applications of the 1-year rule […] Read More …
Federal Disability Judge-Made Decisions Quoted
OPM Disability Retirement: Legal Arguments
Whether and to what extent legal arguments in Federal Disability Retirement cases under FERS or CSRS should be made, should rarely be ventured into by non-lawyers. The boundaries of legal […] Read More …
Federal and Postal Disability Retirement: Reconsiderations
There is a line to be drawn between arguing the law within a boundary of integrity, and arguing the law beyond any reasonable interpretation of the law. This principle is no less true in […] Read More …
OPM Disability Retirement: After Separation from Service (Part 2)
Of course, it is always the separation from service based upon reasons delineated other than medically-based reasons which give rise to concerns in a federal disability retirement case. […] Read More …
Federal & Postal Disability Retirement: The Agency & the Individual
The National Reassessment Program (NRP) now implemented in full force, along with the Voluntary Early Retirement, the cash incentives (many have called to ask whether or […] Read More …
CSRS & FERS Disability Retirement: Clarity over Question
While a compromise position on certain issues in Federal Disability Retirement for FERS & CSRS may be the best that one may hope for, obviously, clarity over question is the better course to have. Thus, for instance, in a removal […] Read More …
OPM Disability Retirement: Argument by Analogy
Attorneys argue “by analogy” all of the time; cases and decisions from the Merit Systems Protection Board, and language from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, provide the fertile fodder for such argumentation. Thus, such issues […] Read More …
OPM Disability Retirement: Further Comment on Vanieken-Ryals
Vanieken-Ryals v. OPM, decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on November 26, 2007, has an interesting statement from the deciding Judge, which can be used as “firepower” for anyone who is attempting to obtain Federal Disability Retirement benefits (note of caution: for lay non-attorneys, be careful in how you use Read More …
FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement: What It Means to Have the “Burden of Proof”
Remember that the applicant who is requesting disability retirement benefits from the Office of Personnel Management always has the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he or she is entitled and eligible for disability retirement benefits. Even if the Agency proposes and effectuates a removal based upon one’s medical inability to Read More …
Federal Disability Retirement: SSA Approval, Part II
In order for an SSA approval to have an impact upon a Federal disability retirement application, the Social Security Administration’s decision letter granting benefits must provide a detailed explanation as to the basis for the approval, delineating the medical basis, the medical conditions upon which the decision was made, etc. Thereafter, the applicant can submit Read More …