Robert R. McGill Administrative Law Blog on Lawyers.com

Thought for the day:  Old adages continue to maintain their relevance because of the truth they contain:  penny wise, pound foolish.  No, not everyone needs a lawyer in filing for disability retirement -- but it is certainly the rare case that an individual's medical conditions are such that potential complications are not likely to be encountered.  Sure, there are the occasional, rare cases where a letter carrier becomes paralyzed; or an Air Traffic Controller suffers from severe seizures and cannot monitor air traffic anymore, etc.  I have told such callers to go ahead and file on his/her own. If it gets denied at the first level, call me.  Those are the extreme cases.  But the truth is, most cases fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum; and this is ultimately a financial decision -- of securing one's financial future while dealing with the reality that you are facing a serious medical condition that will impact your ability to be employed any longer, in a job you thought was going to be your life-long career.  Put in that context, why wouldn't you hire an attorney?  The reason a person hires an attorney is to secure the competent representation in an area of law that contains multiple "legal land-mines", and to avoid such pitfalls.   I look at cases before the MSPB where people have filed for disability retirement, and the issue is whether or not certain medical conditions were listed in the applicant's statement of disability, and whether the Judge has jurisdiction to hear such evidence of medical disabilities.  If the individual had hired an attorney in the beginning -- when the application was first prepared -- then the problem would never have arisen.  A competent attorney knowledgable in the laws of disability retirement would have carefully scrutinized the medical reports and records, discussed the medical conditions and symptoms with the client, and made sure and listed and described each of the primary (and, more often than not, secondary) medical conditions impacting upon the client's ability to perform his/her job.  That doesn't mean that every case I take on will necessarily be approved at the first level, or even at the second level.  It does mean, however, that my clients can avoid needless pitfalls; and further, a represented disability retirement applicant should not be iplaced n jeopardy of having a case decided at the third level -- the Merit Systems Protection Board -- based upon whether or not the Judge is able to receive evidence of a medical condition which the individual failed to list in the original application.  Penny wise, pound foolish.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire