I am pleased to bring news of large awards of compensation being provided to clients in their federal workers' compensation claims with the USDOL Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP).

In the first claim, dating back several years, the federal employee suffered severe injuries when he fell at work.  The claimant underwent lengthy medical procedures and surgeries with extended periods of lost work time.  Due to his injuries he eventually had to medically retire from his federal employment.  We proceed to file a claim against the OWCP for his final scheduled award.  The scheduled award is a medical evaluation and rating For the total impairments that the claimant has suffered due to his on-the-job injury.  After much delay and denial by OWCP, the OWCP finally relented and awarded the claimant more than $660,000.00 in compensation for his permanent injuries.  This scheduled award is tax free and also includes lifetime medical care for his injuries.

In a second case, a federal employee suffered a severe back injury years ago while employed by the post office.  He filed his claim for workers compensation benefits with the OWCP.  The OWCP denied his claim for benefits arguing that he had no medical evidence to support his injuries or claim.  We proceeded to appeal that denial and won. The claimant then preceded with lengthy course of medical treatment and surgeries with lost time compensation being paid by OWCP.  After the claimant was released from treatment we proceeded to file for a scheduled award against the OWCP.  Again, following delays and arguments from OWCP, the OWCP finally relented and awarded the claimant over $110,000.00 as a scheduled award, tax-free and with full lifetime medical care for his injuries.

I am pleased to bring news that even in the area of Social Security disability claims, where delays of years and repeated denials by the SSA are common, success can still be had for claimants.

 In this recent claim, the client had filed for her social security disability benefits almost 8 years earlier.  Her disability claim was denied by a SSA judge.  We appealed that denial to Federal Court.  The Federal Court agreed with us and sent the claim back to the SSA judge to re-consider.  The same SSA judge, after announcing his personal displeasure with the Federal court judge overruling him, proceeded to once again deny benefits and disability to the claimant.  We in turn proceeded back in federal court alleging prejudice and bias of the Social Security judge.  The federal court once again agreed with us and sent the claim back to Social Security to be heard again only this time under order by a different Social Security judge.  Upon appearing before a different Social Security judge for her third Social Security hearing, and after seven years of administrative denials, the Social Security administration quickly and fully found the claimant disabled and awarded her full disability benefits.

In the second claim, once again the claimant had filed his claim for disability benefits years earlier. The Social Security Administration at first awarded disability to the client.  However the Social Security Administration then immediately turned around and "un-awarded" those disability benefits and demanded the client had to repay to the SSA all disability benefits he had received so far.  The very next day after making this "un-award" the SSA then issued a notice to the claimant that no overpayment was due and he was fully entitled to all disability benefits.  Subsequently the SSA then issued notice to the claimant that his disability benefits were denied once again and he owed backpay to the SSA.  As a result of all this we proceeded to file appeals in federal court arguing against the Social Security's actions to deny benefits and their claims of overpayment.  After two federal court appeals, the federal court agreed with our position and ruled that the Social Security Administration essentially had no idea of what it was doing in this case and ordered another hearing on the matter.  Following a third hearing before another Social Security judge, the SSA finally relented and ordered full payment of Social Security disability benefits to the client dating back to his original application years earlier.