Federal Disability Lawyer Fees

Federal employee with disabilities

Should you worry about how much it will cost you to hire a Federal Disability Lawyer?

It is a genuine worry.  There are plenty of lawyers on the Internet who say that they “guarantee” —  with a “money-back” promise  — a successful outcome.  But what good is it to give you back your money if your application is denied at the first hint of trouble, and how much work and effort do you think such a law firm will put into your case?  At first sight, a “money-back” guarantee may seem like an attractive proposition.  You’ll get your money back if a Federal Disability Lawyer can’t deliver.  The problem is:  How much “delivery” will there be to begin with?  And what good is the money returned if you have not secured your Federal Disability Retirement benefits — and more importantly, if you didn’t even put enough effort into a case to give it a fighting chance?

By the time you come to a point where filing for Federal disability retirement benefits becomes a reality, you have already invested both time and money into a career whose goal was to create a “nest egg” for retirement purposes.  You may have already invested 10, 20 or even 30 years in a Federal career, and you are about to lose everything because of an injury or a medical condition.  Taken in that context, “How much”  you will be paying to your attorney shouldn’t be your primary concern.  The attorney you hire might promise you your money back — but what good is that if you haven’t taken your “best shot” at securing your future?  In filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, you are given only one opportunity to save your 10-30 years of hard work before it is thrown out the window.  Who you hire as your Federal Disability Lawyer; how much he is willing to fight on your behalf; what effort will be expended on your behalf; whether he is accessible to you throughout the process — these and many more considerations should be part of the “investment” into your own future.  On the other hand, your “Federal Disability Lawyer” who gives you that “money-back guarantee” might realize that your case is too hard to fight for, that it was not “easy money” and he/she might therefore decide to quit on you.  Yes, it can happen.  It has happened to others.

Meanwhile, your Agency or the Postal Service might have already let you go because you filed for Federal Disability Retirement.  The potential disaster is that you were “medically separated” but you didn’t qualify for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.  Yes, it can happen.  It has happened to others.

When you are struggling to survive after spending a 10-30 year career with the Federal Government, your legal fees are still an important consideration — but even this financial consideration should really be comparatively unimportant when considering the bridges you might be burning behind you.  Don’t be fooled by the “100% Money Back Promise‎”.

Be smart.  Hire the best Federal Disability Lawyer you can find.  Do your homework: Ask former Federal employees who have already successfully filed for Federal Disability Retirement benefits (nothing can beat a personal recommendation); consult with an honest union steward; and research for the best attorney in the field.  Read real reviews (a tip: if an attorney can write his/her own review on his website or even in Google reviews, that might not be a good basis upon which to make a decision); go instead to reputable lawyer directories, public forums, or even the BBB after finding potential Federal Disability Lawyers.

In the end, saving a few hundred of dollars might cost you the rest of your life savings.  Be smart.  Medical conditions can become a disaster in the life of the Federal or Postal employee.  Don’t let a medical disaster become a legal disaster.

Yes, it can happen.  It has happened to others.

 

AllLawyers.org

Federal & Postal Disability Retirement: A Reflection of Life’s Changes

 

Stress after a medical condition in the Federal workplace

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement through one’s agency, and ultimately with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal Worker is under FER, CSRS or CSRS-Offset, is both a reflection of life’s inevitable vicissitudes, as well as a timed indicator for needed change.  It can be considered as one of life’s major traumas, as it combines a compendium of a tripartite composite: A medical condition; impact upon a significant component of one’s life — that of one’s employment, career and vocation, which one worked so hard to achieve; and a necessary alteration of employment leading to financial instability, downsizing and economic turmoil.

Stress becomes an inherent part of the entire administrative process in filing for Federal or Postal Disability Retirement benefits.  It is a time when stress is least tolerable, because of the impact of the medical condition upon one’s life and capacity to work; and yet, it seems that the unavoidable adage of old can never be averted: When it rains, it must by necessity pour.

In a distant, hypothetical manner of thinking, one expects that as one grows older, medical conditions will begin to impact one’s capacity and capabilities, both physically and in cognitively dysfunctional ways.  But there are many Federal and Postal employees who find that a medical condition impacts one’s ability to perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, when one is merely in their 30s or 40s.  Stressful careers have a tendency to take their pound of flesh.  From Law Enforcement positions, to cognitive-intensive duties required of Budget Analysts, Revenue Agents, IT Specialists; to FAA Air Traffic Control Specialists; to the constant and repetitive physical work required of Letter Carriers, Distribution Clerks and Supervisors and Postmasters; the level of stress, both physically and mentally, placed upon Federal and Postal workers who have been asked to do more with less in this continuum of a slowed economy beset with a pubic which mistakenly believes that Federal and Postal workers are overpaid and underworked; the resultant consequential impact is the exponential rise in progressively deteriorating disabilities which call for the necessity of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the disabled Federal employee or the injured Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

Percentage of Federal Disability Retirement approval:  Do you even have a case?

Like the praying mantis whose bright green sheen in early spring metamorphosing into the brown of mortal prefacing, the writing is on the wall for the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal Service worker as to what forebodes for the future.  One is often asked in the initial telephone consultation as to whether a case is “viable” or of ascribing with reasonable accuracy the percentage chances in winning a Federal or Postal Disability Retirement case with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  But in the very question is presupposed the implicit answer, and the unavoidable starkness of truth — again, no more and no less obvious, than the changing colors of the praying mantis:  What choice does one have?  You can either: stay the course; resign and walk away with nothing; or file for Federal or Postal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

There are stories aplenty about abusing the misusing “the system”; and in the crass world of media outlets which fail to make the differentiating distinctions which make for the bifurcation between truth and falsity, the “disability” claims which are most prevalently and prominently featured have to do with Social Security Disability claims, and not with Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through FERS.

What does it take to get your application approved?

FERS Disability Retirement is merely one component of an employment package which every Federal and Postal employee, signed on to when he or she became a Federal employee or U.S. Postal Worker.  It requires, by a preponderance of the evidence, a showing that (A) The Federal or Postal Worker who is under FERS has a minimum eligibility-satisfied requirement of 18 months of Federal/Postal Service (or if under CSRS, 5 years, which is presumably met); (B) that he or she has a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job while in Federal or USPS Service; and (C) that no reassignment at the same pay or grade can be found, or alternatively, that the medical condition cannot be reasonably accommodated such that the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker can continue to perform all of the essential elements of one’s job. As to the medical condition itself, a “built-in” safety hatch exists which generally precludes abusive filings in FERS & CSRS Federal Disability Retirement cases, as opposed to SSDI: the necessary medical reports and records must, in most cases, come from a treating doctor of reasonable duration, and single-purpose disability determinations are taken into consideration with skepticism (excepted examples: a Functional Capacity Evaluation, a Neuropsychological test, and similar specialty-based studies).

Remember:  OPM Disability Retirement is a benefit you’ve already paid for

Filing for a benefit which is merely a part of one’s employment package can hardly constitute or be considered an “abuse of the system”; rather, it is the accessing of a promise made, a word kept, and an administrative process proven when the coalescence of facts, circumstances, and life’s changes require the bureaucratic mandates of filing.  Never has the undersigned author encountered a Federal or Postal worker who “wanted” to file for Federal/Postal Disability Retirement benefits; rather, with great reluctance, it is life’s unexpected and unexplainable changes which have resulted in the necessity of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

In recent times, there has been a major cultural shift in how people, circumstances and the fate of individuals have been described, excoriated and represented in media outlets and public venues; of life’s cyclical karmic characteristic of a lottery and the unfairness of wealth distribution; and the magnum opus of societal disparity: those who access “the system”, as opposed to those who must pay for it.

But in the end, a society must be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizenry, and in keeping the word of its social contract.  Federal Disability Retirement is a benefit accorded to all Federal and Postal employees through the law and a promise upon legislative cogency: Recognizing that the important work of a Federal employee or a U.S. Postal worker can only tolerate a certain level of saturation of stress, repetitive physical repercussions, or the combination of cognitive and physical pain, the Federal Government has conceded that a disability annuity is appropriate where the manifestation of a medical condition impacts one’s ability to perform the essential elements of one’s job, and where no reasonable accommodations are possible, or where reassignment to another position at the same pay or grade cannot be offered; this is thus a response to an expectation that one of life’s changes should be addressed, if and when needed.

The time to make a life decision

And like the praying mantis whose colors may metamorphose as the season brings on a foreboding of mortality; so the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker who suffers from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, must make choices and reflect the unexpected vicissitudes of life’s changes, whether wanted, desired, or never intended.  For, as fate is merely the autumn of a lifetime of summer’s end, so the disabled Federal or injured Postal employee who sees the writing on the wall by reflecting upon the impact of one’s medical condition upon the capacity to continue in the Federal or Postal position, Federal and Postal Disability Retirement through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management must be a consideration of reflecting upon life’s inevitable changes, as the praying mantis neither prays for the fate of change, but merely appears to do so, in our anthropomorphic way of thinking and believing.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Federal Disability Retirement Attorney

 

About the Author

Robert R. McGill is an attorney who specializes in Federal Medical Retirement, a practice area he dedicates 100% of his time helping Federal and Postal workers secure their disability retirement benefits under both FERS and CSRS.  For more information about his legal services, publications and forum, please visit his Federal Disability Lawyer website.

 

FERS Disability Retirement Compared To OWCP

OWCP vs. FERS Disability Retirement

The Department of Labor administers Federal Worker’s Compensation Benefits through the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP).  Such benefits are non-taxable, and are paid for temporary total disability, for injuries or medical conditions which result from, or are caused by, a workplace injury. There are many tangential factors which may be added to this basic definition, but for purposes of distinguishing OWCP from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Disability Retirement, this definition will suffice. Additionally, generally speaking, OWCP/Federal Worker’s Compensation is not a “retirement system.”

OPM Disability retirement, on the other hand, is a retirement system.  As a result of a medical condition which impacts one’s ability to perform the essential elements of one’s job, a person is eligible to retire early, based upon a “medical disability.”  A person on OPM Disability Retirement is separated from the Federal Agency, and he or she may “move on” in life, and perhaps start another career (with certain limitations as stated below).

When is it Time to File for FERS Disability Retirement?

An individual must file for Federal Employees Retirement System/Civil Service Retirement System (FERS/CSRS) disability retirement benefits with the Office of Personnel Management within one (1) year of being separated from Federal Service – otherwise, the right to be eligible for disability retirement benefits is lost. Do not confuse this with being placed on Leave Without Pay (LWOP), or being out on OWCP for being injured.  The clock begins ticking when you are actually separated from service.  Most people, however, should not wait until they are separated to file for disability retirement benefits, but rather, should file whenever it becomes apparent that he or she can no longer perform one or more of the essential elements of the job.

Taxable vs NonTaxable Benefits

OWCP benefits are non-taxable.  OPM Disability Retirement benefits, on the other hand, are taxed.  While receiving disability retirement benefits, a person may undertake a job search, accept another position, and earn up to 80% of what his or her former position currently pays.  Individuals receiving OWCP temporary total disability may not work at another job – period.  Here is a sample scenario using FERS Disability Retirement rules:

A worker’s average salary for 3 consecutive years totals $50,000.  The individual goes out on disability retirement, and after the first year (in which he would receive 60%, or $30,000), he is eligible to receive an annual annuity of 40%, or $20,000.  The worker then applies for and accepts a job in the private sector.  The worker can accept a job that pays up to $40,000 per year (80% of the current salary), and still be eligible to receive the $20,000 per year disability annuity.

The 80% Rule Increases Over Time

The rule is “80% of what a person’s former job pays currently.”  If 5 years from now, a person’s former position pays $60,000 per year instead of $50,000, then he can make up to $48,000 per year at the job, because 80% of $60,000 is $48,000.

Filing for Disability Retirement while on Workers’ Compensation

It is often not a bad idea for those who are receiving OWCP benefits to remain on OWCP for as long as they can stand it (i.e., the persistent harassment, the constant oversight by so-called “2nd opinion doctors”, etc.) — but to always have the FERS/CSRS disability retirement annuity approved as a back-up source of income.  Individuals may file for disability retirement concurrently while on OWCP — but you simply cannot collect from both at the same time (See 5 C.F.R. Sec. 844.105, “Relationship to workers’ compensation. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, an individual who is eligible for both an annuity under part 842 or 844 of this chapter and compensation for injury or disability under subchapter I of chapter 81 of title 5, United States Code (other than a scheduled award under 5 U.S.C. 8107(c)), covering the same period of time must elect to receive either the annuity or compensation.”).

When OWCP terminates payments (and there is a very good chance that this will happen at some point in the near future), it is a wise option to have your disability retirement benefits approved, but held in an inactive status.  Federal workers have every right to elect one benefit over the other.  Indeed, if you wanted to, you are allowed to go back and forth between OWCP and FERS Disability Retirement.

As a secondary issue on this matter, a closer look at 5 U.S.C. Section 8106, paragraph (c) (2), (OWCP) on “partial disability” compared with the definition for disability retirement reveals: that “partially disabled employee who refuses or, neglects to work after suitable work is offered to, procured by, or secured for him, is not entitled to compensation.”  This means that if OWCP secures a job for you as a retail store greeter for instance, and pays you the difference between your salary and what retail store pays — and you decide to say “no”, OWCP has every right to cut off your payments.

On the other hand, under the laws concerning FERS Disability Retirement, 5 C.F.R.Sec. 844.103 (a)(2) states that, in order to be eligible for disability retirement, the individual “must, while employed in a position subject to FERS, have become disabled because of a medical condition, resulting in a deficiency in performance, conduct, or attendance, or if there is no such deficiency, the disabling medical condition must be incompatible with either useful and efficient service or retention in the position.”  The difference here is that, under OWCP, if you are “partially disabled,” if you are offered any job that OWCP believes you can do, you must accept it.  On the other hand, under FERS/CSRS disability retirement laws, if you are partially disabled — meaning that you simply cannot do at least one or more of the essential elements of your job — then you are entitled to disability retirement benefits, and your agency or the Postal Service cannot simply offer you any job; they must offer you a job in the same pay or grade, and one in which you are qualified or, if you are in the Postal Service, then it must an accommodation in the same craft.

Controlling Your Future

Under OWCP, you have no control over your future – OWCP determines your future. Under OPM Disability Retirement, you can obtain disability retirement benefits, and then take control of your future and work at another job of your choice, make up to 80% of what your (former) position pays and still continue to receive your disability annuity.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Federal Disability Lawyer

 

Robert R. McGill is an attorney who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement, a practice area he dedicates 100% of his time helping Federal and Postal workers secure their disability retirement benefits under both FERS and CSRS. For more information about his legal services, publications and forum, please visit his Federal Disability Retirement website.

 

Note:  This article was originally published in Lawyers.com

What is Federal Disability Retirement?

Is it an accident that so many Federal and Postal employees are unaware of the benefit of “Federal Disability Retirement” for FERS employees?  Is it a deliberate “conspiracy of silence” — a benefit which exists but is not trumpeted by the Federal Government for fear of the floodgates of applications being opened?

More likely than not, there is another explanation:  the new Federal employee is neither concerned nor interested in a benefit which one neither imagines nor foresees as a possible avenue of choice.  The general rule in life is that the younger we are, the more invincible we believe we are; as one grows older (or wiser and more mature, as we like to think), thoughts of our own mortality and vulnerability become exponentially magnified.  Like so many things in life, the very concepts of “disability” and “retirement” (leaving aside the compounding and conjoining of the two terms) are far and removed — until it becomes a living necessity.

Federal Disability Retirement and Regular Retirement

When a medical condition begins to impact a Federal or Postal employee, it is important to know that the benefit termed as “Federal Disability Retirement” exists and is available.  It is a benefit which is part of the total ’employment package” when an individual becomes a Federal or Postal employee.  Federal Disability Retirement allows an employee to retire earlier, but not because he or she necessarily got enough years of Federal service to qualify for a retirement annuity (that would be “regular” retirement), but because the employee is medically unable to perform the essential functions of his or her present Federal job.

Thus, when one needs to access such a benefit, one should never think that there is something degrading or nefarious about applying for Federal Disability Retirement benefits — it is not an attempt to “game the system”; it is not a judgment upon the worth of an individual; it is not a conclusion to one’s life.  Rather, it is a recognition that:  (A) one suffers from a medical condition, which (B) impacts and impedes one’s ability to perform the essential elements of one’s Federal or postal job, and (C) that one is no longer a “good fit” for one’s particular job.

You may still work somewhere else

It does not mean that the Federal or Postal employee cannot be productive in some other capacity; indeed, the statutes and regulations governing disability retirement annuity payments allow for an individual to go out and become employed in another, different job, so long as it is (1) substantially different from the type of essential elements which prevented one from performing in the previous job, and (2) one makes no greater than 80% of what the prior (Federal or Postal) job currently pays.

The minimum eligibility requirements

Further, for purposes of determining minimum eligibility requirements, here are some additional “basics”:  To be eligible for a disability retirement annuity under FERS or CSRS, a Federal or Postal employee must establish by a preponderance of the evidence that:

(1) he or she has completed a minimum of 18 months of Federal service (for FERS employees) or five years (for CSRS employees which, presumably, all CSRS employees already have the minimum eligible period of Federal service);

(2) while employed in a position subject to FERS or CSRS, the Federal or Postal employee becomes disabled because of a medical condition,  resulting in a deficiency in performance, conduct, or attendance, or, absent such deficiency, the medical condition must be incompatible with either useful and efficient service or retention in the position;

(3) the disabling medical condition is expected to continue for at least one year from the date the application is filed; and

(4) accommodation of the disabling medical condition in the appellant’s former position or in an existing vacant position must be unable to be accomplished by the agency.  5 U.S.C. § 8337(a); 5 C.F.R. § 831.1203(a).

The above set of legal criteria constitute the “basics” of eligibility.  Certain other elements should also be kept in mind:

The Federal employee need not prove that he or she is “totally disabled”; rather, the standard of proof which must be met is to merely show that he or she is unable, because of disease or injury, to render useful and efficient service in the position occupied.

Your disability does not have to be job-related

Further, it is important to understand that “causality” is not an issue in Federal or Postal Disability Retirement law  — unlike Federal Worker’s Compensation (OWCP).  This is because, to be eligible for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, you don’t need to have an “on-the-job” injury, or suffer from an occupational disease or illness.  You can be playing touch football in your backyard and break your leg, and if the condition of your medical disability lasts for at least a year, and prevents you from performing the essential elements of your job, then you are eligible for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.

Separation from Federal service

One additional – but very important – point which must be considered in filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.   First, one does not need to be separated from service in order to file for disability retirement.  However, if a Federal or Postal employee is separated from service, that employee has only up to one (1) year to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.  If you don’t file within one (1) year of being separated from service, you have lost the right to apply for such benefits forever.

Further, if a separation of service occurs, it is best to attempt to negotiate with the Agency to have the separation characterized as one based upon a medical reason — either explicitly (“separation is based upon your medical inability to perform your job”) or implicitly (“separation is based upon excessive absences,” combined with a reference in the proposed removal to medical conditions implying that the absences resulted from one’s medical conditions).   I have written many articles as to why it is important to obtain a separation from the Federal service based upon one’s inability to perform one’s job.  It is for the sake of securing what is known as the “Bruner Presumption“.

Seeking help from Bruner

The “Bruner Presumption” is so named from a Federal Circuit Court case, Bruner v. Office of Personnel Management, 996 F.2d 290 (Fed. Cir. 1993).   It essentially stands for the proposition that, if a Federal employee under FERS or CSRS is removed for his or her medical inability to perform the duties of his or her position, that such a specified removal constitutes “prima facie” evidence of entitlement to disability retirement.  This legalese simply means that it makes it harder for the Office of Personnel Management to deny a disability retirement application.  However, always remember that it is still, even with the Bruner Presumption, the responsibility of the applicant to show that he or she is entitled to disability retirement benefits — by having the necessary medical documentation showing that you cannot perform the essential elements of the job.

You already had Federal Disability Retirement Insurance all this time

Like life insurance and health insurance (you will still be able to maintain your health or medical insurance), the fine print and details of the contractual benefits are often “out of sight” and “out of mind” — until the necessity arises.  Federal Disability Retirement benefits are rarely considered until the need arises.  It is a benefit accorded to all Federal and Postal employees, and is part of the “employment package” — the totality of compensatory benefits.

Placed on a linear spectrum, when an employee begins his or her Federal career, disability retirement benefits are merely an irrelevancy to set aside for those unnamed and faceless “old folks”; as one moves along the linear spectrum of life and career, however, and medical conditions develop over time, the benefits of a disability retirement annuity become magnified in importance.  A lifetime of working to obtain a semblance of financial security need not become devastated because of a medical condition.  A disability retirement annuity allows for a certain level of financial security – and secures a “fresh start” of productivity in allowing for a second career and a different occupation.  While “out of sight” for today, it is nevertheless a benefit to be mindful of for the future.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Federal Disability Attorney

 

About the Author

Robert R. McGill is an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement, a practice area he dedicates 100% of his time helping Federal and Postal workers secure their disability retirement benefits under both FERS and CSRS. For more information about his legal services, publications and forum, please visit his Federal Disability Retirement website.