QUESTION: What types of disability retirement cases have required legal assistance to win?

ANSWER: The following are just a few of the many cases of government employees who were initially rejected by OPM, and who, with legal assistance, are today receiving a monthly disability annuity:

• a typist unable to work anywhere in her agency's office building on account of her allergy to cigarette smoke;
• a computer analyst distracted from his work by chronic pain resulting from a childhood injury;
• a manager whose HIV-positive status caused him to be too fatigued to put in a full day's work;
• a secretary whose depression-related crying spells often made her late for work;
• a post office employee suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome and unable, without distracting pain, to perform the repetitive motions involved in sorting mail;
• a security guard with chronic bowel syndrome who could not patrol outside because he needed quick access to toilet facilities;
• a hospital worker with an obsessive fear of germs at the work site;
• an auditor required to travel by plane but unable to sit still in her airplane seat because of a slipped disc; and
• a laboratory technician who developed a hypersensitivity to the fumes from chemicals used in the lab.