One would assume that when a Postal Disability Retirement claim has been reviewed by someone at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and a decision of denial has been rendered, that such a decision will — at a bare minimum — be based upon a legally sufficient ground. In other words, that the legal criteria asserted in the application decision will be correctly delineated.
Unfortunately, to the detriment of mail carriers, distribution clerks, mail handlers, and other Postal employees — that is too often not the case. In fact, many of the legal claims asserted by the Office of Personnel Management have absolutely no justification in law, and are exaggerated at best, and a misstatement of the applicable laws, at worst. But for Postal Medical Retirement applicants who are unrepresented (or even those who are represented by general counsels with little or no prior experience in dealing with Postal Medical Retirement claims), the Postal employee may well read the denial decision, believe what the decision states, and become convinced that the burden is too onerous to overcome, and fail to request reconsideration in the case, discouraged that he or she will never be able to meet the legal burden imposed in the initial denial.
Thus, for instance, when an OPM denial letter states that there was “no evidence showing hallucinations, delusions or other symptoms of psychosis,” and therefore the Postal Service Disability Retirement application is denied, one might conclude: “Since I don’t have those conditions, I must not be qualified for disability retirement.” Wrong! Or, when OPM says: “There was no evidence of hospitalization or the need for such treatment,” one might become completely discouraged and say, “Oh, FERS Disability Retirement requires that my injury or medical condition is such that it requires hospitalization in order to qualify, and therefore I cannot qualify“. Wrong!
Such overstated and exaggerated claims by the Office of Personnel Management are indeed commonplace, and they unnecessarily place a burden upon Postal Medical Retirement applicants through mis-statements of Federal Disability Retirement Law. Never allow an OPM mis-statement of the law to persuade you to abandon your disability case; instead, seek competent legal counsel, a Postal Employee Disability Retirement Attorney, to explain what the law of disability retirement really is, and proceed from here.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Partial Image credit to Tswedensky from Pixabay
