nationwide representation of federal employees

Physical and Mental Conditions in Federal OPM Disability Retirement Claims: Ahead of the Proverbial Curve

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement AttorneyLeave a comment

Trends are often characterized by the actions of a few.  Whether in cultural expectancies via movie moguls, fashion designers, technology innovators and convention-busters, the known so-called leaders who stay ahead of the proverbial “curve” which maintains the continuum of linear stability in a given society, often dictate the direction of an otherwise directionless future.  The ivory tower of academia is another such bastion of proclivities where, if observed carefully, […] Read More …

Beginning the Federal Disability Retirement Process

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney1 Comment

The Chinese proverb, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”, is meant to remind us that looking at a process in its entirety can result in self-defeat even before starting, and every daunting journey must begin with the small, almost insignificant, effort of initiation. Facing a bureaucracy and an administrative process can feel like that metaphorical journey of a thousand miles. The multiple and complex standard forms to complete […] Read More …

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

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement AttorneyLeave a comment

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 …

SF 3112D

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement AttorneyLeave a comment

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 …

Physicians and the Substance of a Federal Disability Retirement Case

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney1 Comment

Ultimately, the essence of any claim, endeavor, vocation or activity possesses a characteristic “essence” of a matter — that which defines itself, reveals its core value, and manifests the substantive content of what X “is” as opposed to the accidental and peripheral appearances which can throw one off from the central enigma of that which we seek to unravel. […] Read More …

USPS & OPM Federal Employee Disability Retirement: One of Those Days

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney1 Comment

There are “those days”, so characterized because of the micro-calamities which, in their cumulative impact, disproportionately reveal a compendium of aggregated irritants amounting in totality to a forgetful epoch of one’s life. By contrast, a medical condition of an insidious nature, progressively deteriorating, chronic in persistence and debilitating in severity, magnifies tenfold — nay, a hundred, a thousand, […] Read More …

Postal and Federal Disability Retirement: Of Knights, Integrity and Betrayal

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney1 Comment

Perhaps they are arcane and archaic concepts of feudal vestiges and residues of a time past, when the world was comprised of simple and simplistic codes of conduct; and of a world long declining, such surviving stewards adhering to outmoded manners will ultimately pay the price of extinction. In a fast-paced world of changing circumstances, where the linguistic gymnast can contort truth […] Read More …

Connective Tissues in Federal Disability Claims

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney1 Comment

In biology, they are often discussed in contrast to epithelial tissues, which are closely packed cells for dense, often protective purposes. As the attribution implies, the primary purpose of such tissues is to connect other tissues or organs, for the coordinated and compound workings of the entirety of the organic system. It is that very connection which allows for the coordination of the whole […] Read More …

Context, Content and Vacuums in Federal Employee Disability Retirement Applications

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney2 Comments

Vacuums constitute space devoid of matter. In the practical world, the mechanical tool used for removal of unwanted substances merely moves matter from one location to another; in theoretical physics, one encounters complex conceptual discussions which will often involve comparative analysis of partial vacuums in relation to pure vacuums. Discussions involving […] Read More …

Medical Retirement Benefits for US Government Employees: The Flux

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement AttorneyLeave a comment

Life must of necessity involve change; otherwise, the definition of its corollary occurs, or at a minimum, a deadened spirit. But the tripartite self-contradiction of life, death, and the security of habituated changelessness entraps us all: In youth, the excitement of constant flux energizes; in later life, the unwelcome changes and interruption of daily routine leads to turmoil; […] Read More …