Always emphasize quality over quantity of medical records & reports. A common mistake often made by unrepresented individuals is that he or she will ship off to the Office of Personnel Management a large packet of medical records, bills, appointment sheets, raw blood test results, etc. A potential applicant is always wise to try and look at it from OPM's viewpoint: if you were a reviewer at OPM, which disability retirement application that is assigned to you would you look at on a Monday morning -- the one that is 6-inches thick, or the one that is 1/2 inch thick? Further, untranslated raw test results rarely effectuate a positive response. Raw data that merely conveys numbers, unless interpreted by a physician as to the medical significance of such raw data, will not impress anyone at the Office of Personnel Management. It is the job of an attorney to use the tools of an attorney: effective and descriptive words, and to help the applicant to find the proper descriptive words to convey the serious medical conditions that he or she suffers from.
Sincerely, Robert R. McGill, Esquire
