Disability Retirement Legal Manual

The Disability Retirement Legal Manual is a compendium of questions and answers covering the full scope of the OPM Disability Retirement process: questions I have been repeatedly asked over the years.

Articles

These blog posts are particularly important to individuals seeking disability retirement. For example, "Getting Fired Can Be A Blessing" is a critical concept describing how it can be advantageous for a federal employee to be fired if their medical condition interferes with either their performance, attendance, or conduct.

Mandatory OPM Forms

When applying for Disability Retirement, OPM has a series of mandatory forms. I provide links to the forms and explain how responses can be augmented to make for a more convincing case.

Harvey Talk

If you want to get a feel for what I'm all about and listen to me answer a few of the questions clients ask me, listen to these podcasts.

Testimonials

While I feel testimonials are baloney since a lawyer can pick and choose which ones to publish, here are a few to make you feel good about me.

About the Author

Read about what I have done in my over 50 years of being a lawyer.

About the Blog

I published the first website on the topic of Federal Disability Retirement some 20 years ago. It was the single source of information for government employees seeking disability retirement. Since then, other lawyers and OPM have followed suit and provide a great deal of needed information.

I am now retired and continue to write this blog, but I no longer take cases. My trusted colleague Elliott Andalman, Esq. does. If you need his assistance, fill out the contact form and Elliott will get in touch with you. Read more about Elliott.

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Articles

Don't Fear Asking Your Doctor for a Convincing Physician's Statement

We have a real problem with Physician’s Statements from doctors who are too busy to spend time writing them and unwilling to go out on a limb to say it like it really is. So you have to work around this. When it comes to doctors, you have to… Read More

Even if Removed for Misconduct, Agencies are REQUIRED to Fill Out Your Disability Retirement Forms

Following up on my earlier post about getting fired for misconduct: If you are fired for misconduct, that does not mean your agency can wash its hands of you and not cooperate with your claim for Disability Retirement. Your agency is still required… Read More

Disability Retirement Legal Manual

Which is more important in getting disability retirement, the nature of my disease or injury, or the symptoms from which I suffer?

ANSWER: The disabling symptoms matter most, although diagnosis of a fatal or very serious disease can certainly be expected to have some impact on the disability decision. For instance, people with cancer do not automatically qualify for disability retirement unless they are presently suffering from the disabling symptoms of that disease. On the other hand, you don't have to suffer from any particularly serious disease, or even from any diagnosable disease in order to qualify for disability retirement. You only need to make the appropriate showing that you are suffering from disabling symptoms, even if the cause of the symptoms is unknown.

The rules are tough in not allowing a mere diagnosis to serve as a ground for disability retirement. But the rules are also lenient in permitting you to qualify for disability retirement on the basis of disabling symptoms which may appear to be minor or which effect you only on particular occasions. A person whose job requires travel by plane on occasion, but who is unable to fly on account of chronic back pain may well be eligible for disability retirement, even if an asymptomatic cancer patient is not eligible.

Do I need to have a job- related disease or injury in order to qualify for disability retirement?

ANSWER: No. Disability retirement compensates you regardless of either the nature or the cause of the disability. Nor does it matter where the disability was incurred, whether at the desk or on the dance floor. Workers' compensation is a different program that compensates employees for disabilities which are exclusively job-related.

How valuable is the reconsideration stage in winning disability retirement?

ANSWER: Until recently, the reconsideration stage was often a wasted effort. In most instances as a consequence of bureaucratic intransigence (or plain laziness), OPM regularly failed to provide the reasons why the application was rejected. This pretty much made the reconsideration stage worthless, since you had to guess at what might change the minds of those at OPM. After constantly pummeling OPM for this failure, I have found that the agency has changed its procedure, and is now regularly providing reasons for their initial denial. This makes an enormous difference and allows you to make a more meaningful response on reconsideration.

If OPM rejects your application again on reconsideration, it issues a final decision, which gives you a right to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board. There, an administrative judge will afford you a hearing and decide your entitlement to disability retirement.

How do I prove that I am disabled?

ANSWER: You don't have to prove it, in the sense of being required to produce objective medical evidence. In certain clear-cut cases (i.e. that of the typist whose hand was cut off), it is easy to prove disability. But such cases are the exceptions. More frequently, disabling symptoms are impossible to prove, and, contrary to popular belief, the law does not require you to do the impossible. Subjective but very disabling symptoms (such as fatigue, chronic pain, phobias, depression, and allergies) are usually impossible to prove, because no objective medical evidence is usually available. Yet they are among the most common disabilities for which government employees seek and obtain a monthly disability annuity. Employees with subjective symptoms, regardless of their medical condition, face the greatest difficulties before OPM.

Sometimes, even when you can provide objective medical evidence to support your claim, OPM may not be interested in looking at it. In one case, I sent a client's x-rays to OPM to demonstrate that he had a slipped disc. OPM refused to accept them, saying that it had no place to store x-rays. You would think that if only to prevent potential fraud, OPM would have demanded such information, not blindly turned it away.

10 Questions People Always Ask Me About Disability Retirement

Disability Retirement Legal Manual

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Mandatory OPM Forms

Harvey Talk

Testimonials

About the Author

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Disability Retirement Legal Manual

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