What's New:

Attorney Robert R. McGill will be answering questions about Federal Disability Retirement in a new forum at Martindale-Hubbell's Lawyers.com.

Latest Articles:

Federal and Postal Disability Retirement: The Frustrating Process 07/29/2010 by Federal Lawyer As with most administrative dealings with the government (Federal, State or local), the process itself is a frustrating one. Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS [...]   Early Retirement for Disabled Federal Workers: The Percentage Language Game 07/28/2010 by Federal Lawyer To the question: "What medical disabilities do you have," is often the response in terms of a percentage language game: "The VA has given me a ____"; "My doctor rated me at____". [...]   OPM Disability Retirement: A Different Language Game 07/27/2010 by Federal Lawyer Wittgenstein was a philosopher who is well-known for his discussion about different "language games". In preparing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, [...]   Federal Worker Disability Retirement: Agency Accommodation Reiterated 07/26/2010 by Federal Lawyer In most cases, the agency is unable to accommodate the individual. By "accommodation" is often meant lessening the workload, or temporarily allowing for the medical conditions [...]   Federal Worker Disability Retirement: Not all Agencies are Equal 07/24/2010 by Federal Lawyer No names will be named. Not for purposes of "protecting the innocent", because it is doubtful that there are any innocent entities, anyway. Rather, the knowledge that there are some [...]   Medical Retirement Benefits for US Government Employees: Agency Adverse Actions 07/23/2010 by Federal Lawyer Agency actions of an adverse nature seem to go hand-in-hand with filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS & CSRS. If one pauses for a moment, one can easily understand [...]   Federal Disability Retirement: Agency Overstepping 07/22/2010 by Federal Lawyer The Office of Personnel Management is the Federal Agency which reviews, evaluates and determines the eligibility of an applicant for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS. [...]   read all blogs »

Approval of Disability by the Social Security Administration
Legal Analysis of Non-Statutory Laws

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Approval of Disability by the Social Security Administration: In Trevan v. Office of Personnel Management, 69 F.3d 520, 526-27 (Fed. Cir. 1995), the Federal Circuit Court found that in making a determination of eligibility for disability retirement under FERS, the Board must consider an award of SSA disability benefits together with medical evidence provided by the appellant to OPM, and other evidence of disability. This is because the Federal Circuit Court wanted a consistency of determinations concerning disabilities, by all governmental agencies and departments. Social Security obviously has a stricter standard, and requires that an applicant be "totally disabled" in order to award benefits. I have effectively argued that similar determinations by other governmental agencies (such as the Veterans Administration) should also be required to be considered by the Office of Personnel Management.

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