OPM Disability Application

FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement: The Purposeful Statement

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney3 Comments

Some narratives are written for the pure beauty of style and art; quiet in tenor, like the bamboo hollow whistling in the serenity of a morning breeze as the sun reaches the crest of the distant mountains, the place where wizards and warlords gather in solemn conferences around a fireplace of cooling ashes. Then, there are informational pieces — direct lines of communication, shot at the reader like an arrow and with words to pierce the intended audience. […] Read More …

Federal Disability Retirement: The Statement, the Stranger and the How

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney3 Comments

Paper presentations are dangerous creatures; if read by a stranger, it lacks the context of familiarity, and therefore must include enough information and detail to lay the preparatory foundation for coherence and comprehensibility; when viewed by someone known, unwarranted inferences and implications may be extrapolated, where characters and references are alleged to be fictional representations of real people, events and encounters. […] Read More …

The Balance of Relevance during the Preparation and Filing of an OPM Disability Retirement Application

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Extraneous information is somewhat determined by the eye of the beholder; outsiders tend to view things differently from those who hold greater and more intimate knowledge through interconnected and intersecting relationships; and implied understandings, furtive glances and knowing stares, coupled with a wan smile, are often indicative of an intramural web of knowledge. Looking to move into a neighborhood, one may drive through an area and see the pristine cut of well-manicured lawns, […] Read More …

The Effective Use of Language in the Federal Disability Retirement Application

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney1 Comment

As a paper presentation to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Federal Disability Retirement must by necessity be based upon the effective use of language. Language — that all-encompassing compendium of vocabulary, grammar, word-choice, topical selection, verbs, descriptive ascriptions, use of nouns and action verbs, etc. — is the vehicle of requirement, all within the constraints of providing validating evidentiary proof in preparing a Federal Disability Retirement application; and it must be delineated within the purview of factual validation and guided by truth within […] Read More …

Federal Disability Retirement: Indexicals

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It is indeed the specific context of a situation which provides for referential data giving individualized meaning to a case. But for Federal Disability Retirement cases, the unique contextual information concerning where, by whom, in what timeframe, may be perfectly allowable in a “for instance” or “for example” type of descriptive enhancement, but ultimately what the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is looking for is the example which represents a medical condition or symptom thereof that is chronic, is of consistent duration, and which is not merely a singular event. […] Read More …

OPM Form SF 3112C and the Sufficiency of the Physician’s Statement

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Confusing necessity and sufficiency is always a precarious matter. That which is necessary may not be sufficient for a given purpose, and failure in understanding such a fundamental distinction can be fatal to a Federal Disability Retirement claim. SF 3112C requires that a physician complete and provide essential medical information in the pursuance of a Federal Disability Retirement application. The form itself — SF 3112C — is the vehicle by which the medical documentation is obtained. […] Read More …

OPM Disability Application Forms: SF 3112A and the Pathway through the Bureaucracy

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney2 Comments

Bureaucracy and creativity are conceptual opposites, rarely spoken in the same sentence, and never compatible, representing always a contrast in self-contradictory terms.  For, it is the former which implies the negation of the latter, or the stamping out of any hint of the former’s influence  […] Read More …

SF 3112D

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OPM Standard Form 3112D: Agency Certification of Reassignment and Accommodation Efforts:
What does it mean to accommodate, and what, pray tell, constitutes an “effort” to do so? Is the agency’s obligation to pursue avenues of reassignment or accommodation satisfied by the mere completion of SF 3112D and, if not, does the agency merely pay lip-service in its obligation, or are continuing efforts required to be actively undertaken? […] Read More …

SF 3112C

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OPM Standard Form 3112C: Physician’s Statement:

Forms tend to intimidate; the more official the appearance, the greater heightening of anxiety in close encounters of this kind. Beyond the alien look of some forms (for those who have already identified the two references to Steven Spielberg’s 1977 Science Fiction film, you have revealed what generation you are from), the size of the font, the extent of warnings issued (i.e., “Privacy Act and Public Burden Statements”, etc.), and most importantly, the cogency and clarity of understanding […] Read More …