August 9, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode of the Federal Workers Compensation Coffee Break Podcast, Dr. Taylor, a seasoned OWCP and federal healthcare consultant, provides an update on the OWCP Appeal Process. Dr. Taylor discusses FECA ACT § 10.600 which covers how can final decisions of OWCP be reviewed?
There are three methods for reviewing a formal decision of the OWCP (§§ 10.125 through 10.127 discuss how decisions are made). These methods are: reconsideration by the district office; a hearing before an OWCP hearing representative; and appeal to the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB). For each method there are time limitations and other restrictions which may apply, and not all options are available for all decisions, so the employee should consult the requirements set forth below. Further rules governing appeals to the ECAB are found at part 501 of this title. Dr. Taylor discusses the 3 different types of appeals, rights, responsibilities, rules and provisions of each type of appeal. Dr. Taylor also discusses tips, strategies and tutorials for each type of appeal. Dr. Taylor presents ways to understand how to successfully navigate the appeals process.
Dr. Taylor’s contact information is: fedcompconsultants@protonmail.com
If you need a medical provider or assistance with an OWCP / DOL claim in Tampa, Jacksonville, Pensacola Florida, south Georgia, Mississippi or Daphne Alabama you can make an appointment to see Dr. Taylor, or Dr. Sullivan at the clinic at FWC Medical Centers. To make a consultation with Dr. Taylor call the clinic at 813-215-4356 or go to our website at https://fedcompconsultants.com/ or https://fwcmedicalcenters.net/
For responses email Dr. Taylor at fedcompconsultants@protonmail.com
For responses email Dr. Taylor at fedcompconsultants@protonmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:56):
Back.
Good to have you here.
This is a good one.
I've had a lot of questionsabout this one, so I decided to
do a quick one before I travel.
Still recovering from necksurgery.
But I'm talking about the OWCPappeal process.
(01:17):
I had a lot of questions aboutthis.
I thought I'd just do a review.
I haven't done one in a coupleof years.
So I thought I would just jumpin and...
Start having this one revisitedbecause a lot of people have
been asking a lot of questionson stuff that I've covered.
So first of all, welcome to thepodcast.
I am Dr.
Taylor, your Federal Workers'Compensation...
(01:41):
I've been doing this for alittle over 30 years in a
workers' comp arena.
Here at the podcast, we discussall sorts of topics related to
workers' compensation federalthat has to do with DOL, OWCP,
the FICA Act, federal employmentretirement system, longshore
maritime, and other relevanttopics in a short coffee break
format, similar to Lunch andLearn, because we like to
(02:03):
discuss topics that you, theinjured worker, bring to me or
things that I present to you toassist you with filing your
claim, understanding your rightsand responsibilities,
responsibilities and relevantrules and provisions.
I also like to cover topics thatpeople are always wanting
information on and I get lots ofemails and this is basically why
I'm doing this one is because itis difficult to navigate the
waters of federal claim filingand I do this because it's
(02:26):
important for you to understandyour rights and the provisions
of federal workers comp thatyou're afforded and most people
don't know enough about where togo and who is able to help them
and so I get a lot of emails onthese kind of processes because
most people seek me out whenthey've had a denial.
(02:47):
So let's dive in.
We're going to do the OWCPappeals process today.
So let's get our coffee going.
And let's dive into the OWCPappeals process.
All right, so if you findyourself being one of those
people that is, unfortunately,got a rejected claim, okay?
(03:09):
This is for people that have arejected claim.
That means you have a denialletter in writing that in the
denial letter, it says whatelement of the five elements
you're being denied for, and itexplains what your rights,
responsibilities, are what yourdeficiency are according to
their position and what yourappeals process rights are.
(03:32):
And on the last page, itdescribes three different
appeals processes.
And those three appeal processcan be a little bit burdensome
and lengthy and difficult to getthrough and understand.
And so I'm gonna try to make youunderstand what to expect and
what the process is.
And of those three options onthe last page, you're gonna see
(03:53):
the first one be called an oralhearing or review of the reading
record.
The second one with a little boxto check is reconsideration by
OWCP.
And the third one has a littlebox that says appeal to the
Employee Compensation AppealsBoard or ECAB.
We affectionately know it asECAB.
Okay, for any of these options,you must be extremely detailed
(04:17):
and complete in how you gothurt.
There's podcasts I've done inthe past, very detailed about
how to do this correctly for anoccupational injury like a CA1
filing, or an occupationalinjury that's over a date range
of two or more shifts like a CA2filing, where you have to put
the where, the when, the how,the why, and who, all in great
(04:38):
detail.
And when I say great detail, Imean you have to say who you
are, what division of governmentyou work for, what's your job
title, how many years, and youhave to go into the details of
what your job requirements areand go through all the
activities of what you do on aday-to-day basis, or what you
did on an average day versus theday that you got injured if it
(05:03):
was a one-time incident.
Those appeals processes arereally big on your injury
statement as an injured worker.
It's got to be extremelydetailed.
It's got to be thorough on allof those categories.
So let's go over the options.
The first appeal, like I said,is called an oral hearing or
(05:23):
review of the record.
It's offered when the claimsexaminer denies your claims as
choice number one.
Now, you have the ability tochoose which type of appeal you
want, but you must choose oneand you cannot have both.
Don't forget that.
You only have 30 days from theday you receive your initial
claim rejection letter from OWCPto ask for whichever type of
(05:44):
appeal you choose.
Remember, that's alwaysimportant when OWCP gives you a
deadline because deadlines arehard lines.
very difficult for you to getsomething even to be accepted at
all.
If you miss a deadline, you gotto have really good reasons.
And even then, most of the time,they just ignore you because
(06:06):
they can, because they give you30 days to respond.
Now, it's important for you tounderstand that whichever type
of appeal, whichever you do, youhave to understand that in order
for you to win your claim, youhave to know how to present what
type of evidence for what typeof situation in these type of
(06:29):
appeals process.
I want you to win, but you'renot always going to win every
single time.
Most of the time people win onthe second or third appeal,
believe it or not.
So it's important for you ifyou're going to have a chance to
win your claim to understandwhich one's best for you in this
process.
(06:49):
So let's begin.
Now, when I talk about winningthe claim, you have to
understand that the vast in theappeal is that you or if you're
going to use a representativeare allowed to enter into the
official record additionaldocuments and details about your
case which have not beenpreviously presented so if you
think you weren't thoroughenough on a certain point you
(07:11):
have newer evidence oradditional evidence that's what
they are going to focus on oneach appeal each appeal is going
to be based on additionalevidence I don't care which of
the three you choose okay now Ifyour appeal fails and you have
extra details in the officialrecord, you want to make sure
that it's added to your file.
(07:31):
These extra details can provevaluable at every level of the
appeal, so you want to bethorough and you want to
aggregate as much newinformation as you can for each
appeal.
If you happen to win the firstappeal, then you're lucky, as
most people don't, in myopinion, unless you get people
that really know what they'redoing and know how to do the
first appeal that haveexperience like me or certain
(07:54):
attorneys.
and consultants and unionstewards.
If you happen to not win, don'tfret.
There's some valuableinformation here that you can
use to help assist you with yourmultiple appeal denials.
First of all, let's talk aboutthe first one, oral hearing and
review of the record.
(08:14):
You have a review of the recordoption.
That one is held by the branchof hearing and review.
Now, this decision is made bywhat's called a hearing officer.
You or your rep can submit newevidence in writing prior to the
decision in order to bestdocument your case file.
And I impress upon you that youshould do this because the oral
(08:36):
hearing is by far, in myopinion, a better option than
the review of the written recordas it is transcribed by a court
reporter and you and your rephave a chance to speak and ask
questions and to also testifywhen necessary to further add
information or further documentcorrect any and all of the
(08:57):
deficiency claims that yourclaims examiners put in your
current case file denial.
The oral hearing also allows youto have witnesses testify as
well as subpoena witnesses totestify on your behalf that
don't want to.
Sometimes people don't want toget involved, and you say, well,
you saw it.
I'm going to subpoena you.
Now, there are two types of oralhearings.
(09:17):
There's an in-person oralhearing, and there's a remote
oral hearing.
In my opinion, the remote oralhearing is the better one, and
I'll explain why here in asecond.
But let's talk about thein-person oral hearing first.
The in-oral hearing, you and oryour rep will have a hearing
officer and a transcriberphysically in the same room.
(09:38):
The transcriber is going torecord for the record all of the
conversation, all the evidencethat's entered into the record.
Now, your agency, the OWCPagency, can have a
representative at the hearing.
But listen, an OWCPrepresentative, like a claims
examiner or their supervisor,they are not allowed to testify
(10:00):
or participate in the hearing,only observe.
Now, this type of oral hearingis conducted face-to-face and
can take up to six months in myopinion sometimes even longer to
get a date for you to have yourhearing heard which in my
opinion is risky so you got tobe careful about doing it face
(10:21):
to face because you may have towait an additional six months
before you're actually going toget any treatment or you may not
be getting paid or you knowthere's a lot of benefits that
you're going to miss out offerfor you know months and months
and months so consider that whenyou're considering doing an oral
hearing face-to-face.
(10:41):
Now the other type of oralhearing which I like is the
telephonic oral hearing and it'sbetter for the follow two
reasons in my opinion.
First, the time to have thehearing is reduced usually from
a few weeks to about a couple ofmonths.
The reason for that is that thehearing officer does not have to
travel to conduct a hearing andis held over the telephone which
allows all the parties to attendfrom a remote location which
(11:05):
makes a geographic much easierto get it scheduled in a faster
time period.
So in my opinion, I wouldrequest a telephonic oral
hearing, but that's just myopinion.
Now, at the oral hearing, theclaimant has a right to do a
pre-hearing conference wherethey can discuss with the
hearing officer the issue to bediscussed, and that's usually
(11:27):
done in the form of a responseletter back and forth.
You usually get a hearingofficer that'll send you a
letter requesting moreinformation about the appeal,
And I've had some people thathave won on their oral hearings
on just their presentationpre-hearing to the hearing
officer.
But anyway, you present that andin the pre-hearing officer, the
(11:52):
hearing officer will review thepre-hearing conference
documents.
before they start the hearing.
And it'll discuss what the caseis lacking if asked.
So if you can, make sure you'redetailed in your pre-hearing
discussion points that arerequested of you by the hearing
(12:13):
officer so that they have a goodreview and a good understanding
of your hearing complaint fromyour pre-hearing documents.
So now that we're going to startthe hearing, after the
pre-hearing, the pre-hearing thehearing officer will go on the
record and describe what wasdiscussed in all that
(12:34):
pre-hearing back and forthwritten responses.
The reporter will transcribe thehearing and the transcription
will be entered into the record.
Now in that record will becontained what is needed to win
your claim and or what isdeficient in your claim.
The hearing officer will sweareveryone and his witnesses over
the phone and you will be askedto testify at the hearing or
(12:57):
your representative can testify.
Then turns the case over to youand the claimant or your rep and
during this phase the claimantcan testify but also any of the
witnesses you've asked orsubpoenaed and your
representative can all speak.
And your representative can askfor an additional 30 days if
(13:18):
they feel like they've gotfurther evidence that they can
submit, including other medicalevidence that will be needed to
win your claim.
So that is something that'sallowable post-hearing.
All right, you can ask for, youhave up to 30 days to submit
further evidence once thetestimony phase of the oral
hearing is over when everyonehangs up.
(13:39):
So for this reason, the oralhearing is by far the best way
to further document your casefile and have a chance to win,
in my opinion.
Now you have the right to skipan oral hearing or review of the
written record and move directlyto a reconsideration, but I
don't advise you to do thisbecause what you don't
understand is that yourreconsideration is going to be
(14:00):
reconsidered by the exact samepeople who denied your claim in
the first place.
So that's not the audience youwant to go back to.
This is the same audience thatsaid, nope, and denied your
claim.
So you're going to reconsider itto the same audience that's
already denied it?
That's not a good idea.
That typically doesn't go wellfor the first deal of appeal.
(14:23):
Now, I cannot distress to you inmy opinion how important oral
hearing is to avoid further andfurther delays by phone.
You have exactly 30 days fromthe date of the initial decision
letter that you receive to askfor this very important appeal.
So remember, of all the appealsprocess, the shortest date of
(14:45):
response to request this type ofhearing or this hearing appeal
is the oral hearing.
30 days.
So you only have 30 days torespond and don't forget that.
Reconsiderations are differentand even ECABs are different and
we'll talk about those in asecond.
So let's dive intoreconsideration because it's the
next type of appeal or numbertwo on that sheet.
(15:09):
That is called areconsideration.
When you check off the boxnumber two, a reconsideration,
you're basically can requestthat any adverse decision made
in your claim, including anadverse decision made by ECAB.
However, to request a atreconsideration, you must have
the date of the decision whichis being appealed and either a
(15:30):
legal argument or new medicalevidence which was not in the
record at the time that thedecision for you requesting this
reconsideration was made.
Sometimes reconsideration appealis necessary in order to further
document your case prior tosubmitting your case to ECAP,
and I've done it that waybefore.
(15:51):
One point is to remember that areconsideration is not an
absolute right.
If you, the claimant, do nothave a legal argument or
substantial new medical evidenceto submit in support of your
claim, then OWCP has the rightto deny your request for
reconsideration at face valuebecause nothing new has been
submitted.
(16:11):
Now, the last type of appeal,well, hold on, let me finish
reconsideration.
The one thing aboutreconsideration that I see done
successfully that does work wellis if you really get good
causation narratives byexperienced OWCP medical
personnel.
If you've got a medical providerwho really knows what they're
doing and knows how to explainhow work-related factors cause
(16:35):
the work-related injury andexplain with medical evidence
and citation references whatsupports that this kind of
activity causes these kinds ofstrains or dislocations or tears
or fractures or whatever, thattype of evidence is really good
for reconsideration.
if you didn't do it the firsttime.
(16:58):
Now, the last type of appealthat we have is called an ECAB.
That's the EmployeesCompensation Appeals Board.
Now, with an ECAB, you have tounderstand that this one has,
oh, wait a minute, I made amistake.
Let's go back.
In a reconsideration, it has oneadvantage.
I forgot.
(17:18):
The one advantage about areconsideration is if you miss
the deadline for an oralhearing, let's say you miss the
30-day deadline, areconsideration, you have one
year, one year of time in orderto file and before your
expiration date expires.
(17:39):
So they send you a letter, youhave one year to respond if
you're going to go for areconsideration.
Okay, sorry, I forgot.
Now going back to ECAP, whenyou're sending your case to the
appeals board, you cannot addany new evidence or information
to your case file.
Did you hear me?
Listen again.
(18:00):
You cannot add any newinformation or evidence in your
case file to an ECAB appealsboard.
The case must be appealed withthe record as it is.
Now, in that particular type offiling, they give you six months
to file for an appeal panelboard decision, or appeal board
(18:24):
panel board members to reviewyour case for a decision.
uh...
When you appeal to this board,this appeal is handled in
Washington, D.C.
by a three-member panel that'sappointed by the Department of
Labor.
Remember, these three membersare OWCP employees.
(18:46):
You have exactly one year fromthe date of the latest decision
in your case to request an ECABappeal.
If you let the one-year limittime expire, then your case is
over.
If you choose either an oralhearing or a review of the
record, then you never lose theright to a reconsideration of
your claim as long as you askfor a reconsideration within a
(19:08):
year of any decision in yourcase.
Remember to always read whateverdecision you receive thoroughly
to see why your case was deniedand if there are any new legal
arguments you can make, or ifthere are any new medical
evidence you can use to betterdocument your case in order to
win it.
you have one year from the dateof the ECAB decision to file a
(19:31):
reconsideration.
Now what I see done and this iswhat I recommend is that you do
the oral hearing and then afterthe oral hearing if you don't
win you start thereconsideration process.
The reconsideration process Um,you want to start developing new
(19:53):
medical evidence in your, inyour reconsiderations because
you're building a case file.
Once you've gotten enoughreconsideration evidence, then
all that evidence can besubmitted.
If you will lose it, all threeappeals, uh, to the ECAB appeal
board, who's going to look atthe entire record from start to
finish.
And most of the time, if I don'twin an oral hearing, which I
(20:16):
have only lost, I then thereconsideration, I usually win
by the second appeal.
But most of the time, if you doreconsiderations, like in my
office, the reconsiderations areusually won on the first try
because I'm good at doingcausation narratives and
understand how to satisfy themedical legal arguments for the
(20:38):
five element argument, you know,and I very rarely go to ECAB
because ECAB rulings are verydifficult to win because usually
the problem is in the medicaldocumentation.
There's holes in it.
So that's the appeals process.
So I wanted to go over that withyou and make sure that you had
(20:59):
an understanding of how tofigure out which of those three
types of appeals process is thebest fit for you.
Okay?
Now, if you're in the processand you're running out of time
and you're having a difficulttime figuring out what should I
do, what type of appeal, you canalways reach out to me.
(21:20):
But I will tell you, there aremany people that reach out to me
that are looking for an appealthat there's too much damage
done to their case or they'vemissed a deadline and I can't
help you.
So if you think you need helpand you want me to help you or
you want somebody around you tohelp you, make sure you pay
attention to the deadlines,okay?
(21:41):
all right i think that's it ibelieve i hear the music coming
so I think that does it for thisepisode of Federal Workers' Comp
Coffee Break Podcast.
I want to thank you forlistening.
I want to remind you to sharethis podcast with other federal
workers you think would benefitfrom this information.
Be sure and leave a five-starreview of whatever podcast
platform that you found this atso other federal workers could
(22:04):
find me online if you think youwould like to help others
because it was other peopledoing the same thing that helped
you find my podcast online andit helps benefit everyone that's
in government Thank you.
(22:41):
813-215-4356 and or813-877-6900.
Also, if you're in another stateand you want me to assist you
with your claim questions orassistance for your doctor, you
can email me atfedcompconsultants at
protonmail.com.
All right, guys, I think that'sgood enough.
(23:02):
I'll warm up this coffee and getgoing.
As usual, I want to thank all ofyou that are listening, who put
on that uniform, that badge,deliver that mail, take care of
our veterans, and make thisgovernment run.
This is my big thank you to you.
I do this for free just for you.
We couldn't do this without allthe work all of you out there
do, so thank you very much foryour service.
I know it's not an easy job.
And remember, if you have aninjured federal worker's claim
(23:25):
and you need assistance, I'mhere to help.
All right, see you next time.
Off to get my coffee warm.
Keep sending those emails,questions, and comments.
I appreciate hearing from all ofyou.
See you next time.
Back.
Good to have you here.
This is a good one.
I've had a lot of questionsabout this one, so I decided to
do a quick one before I travel.
Still recovering from necksurgery.
But I'm talking about the OWCPappeal process.
(01:17):
I had a lot of questions aboutthis.
I thought I'd just do a review.
I haven't done one in a coupleof years.
So I thought I would just jumpin and...
Start having this one revisitedbecause a lot of people have
been asking a lot of questionson stuff that I've covered.
So first of all, welcome to thepodcast.
I am Dr.
Taylor, your Federal Workers'Compensation...
(01:41):
I've been doing this for alittle over 30 years in a
workers' comp arena.
Here at the podcast, we discussall sorts of topics related to
workers' compensation federalthat has to do with DOL, OWCP,
the FICA Act, federal employmentretirement system, longshore
maritime, and other relevanttopics in a short coffee break
format, similar to Lunch andLearn, because we like to
(02:03):
discuss topics that you, theinjured worker, bring to me or
things that I present to you toassist you with filing your
claim, understanding your rightsand responsibilities,
responsibilities and relevantrules and provisions.
I also like to cover topics thatpeople are always wanting
information on and I get lots ofemails and this is basically why
I'm doing this one is because itis difficult to navigate the
waters of federal claim filingand I do this because it's
(02:26):
important for you to understandyour rights and the provisions
of federal workers comp thatyou're afforded and most people
don't know enough about where togo and who is able to help them
and so I get a lot of emails onthese kind of processes because
most people seek me out whenthey've had a denial.
(02:47):
So let's dive in.
We're going to do the OWCPappeals process today.
So let's get our coffee going.
And let's dive into the OWCPappeals process.
All right, so if you findyourself being one of those
people that is, unfortunately,got a rejected claim, okay?
(03:09):
This is for people that have arejected claim.
That means you have a denialletter in writing that in the
denial letter, it says whatelement of the five elements
you're being denied for, and itexplains what your rights,
responsibilities, are what yourdeficiency are according to
their position and what yourappeals process rights are.
(03:32):
And on the last page, itdescribes three different
appeals processes.
And those three appeal processcan be a little bit burdensome
and lengthy and difficult to getthrough and understand.
And so I'm gonna try to make youunderstand what to expect and
what the process is.
And of those three options onthe last page, you're gonna see
(03:53):
the first one be called an oralhearing or review of the reading
record.
The second one with a little boxto check is reconsideration by
OWCP.
And the third one has a littlebox that says appeal to the
Employee Compensation AppealsBoard or ECAB.
We affectionately know it asECAB.
Okay, for any of these options,you must be extremely detailed
(04:17):
and complete in how you gothurt.
There's podcasts I've done inthe past, very detailed about
how to do this correctly for anoccupational injury like a CA1
filing, or an occupationalinjury that's over a date range
of two or more shifts like a CA2filing, where you have to put
the where, the when, the how,the why, and who, all in great
(04:38):
detail.
And when I say great detail, Imean you have to say who you
are, what division of governmentyou work for, what's your job
title, how many years, and youhave to go into the details of
what your job requirements areand go through all the
activities of what you do on aday-to-day basis, or what you
did on an average day versus theday that you got injured if it
(05:03):
was a one-time incident.
Those appeals processes arereally big on your injury
statement as an injured worker.
It's got to be extremelydetailed.
It's got to be thorough on allof those categories.
So let's go over the options.
The first appeal, like I said,is called an oral hearing or
(05:23):
review of the record.
It's offered when the claimsexaminer denies your claims as
choice number one.
Now, you have the ability tochoose which type of appeal you
want, but you must choose oneand you cannot have both.
Don't forget that.
You only have 30 days from theday you receive your initial
claim rejection letter from OWCPto ask for whichever type of
(05:44):
appeal you choose.
Remember, that's alwaysimportant when OWCP gives you a
deadline because deadlines arehard lines.
very difficult for you to getsomething even to be accepted at
all.
If you miss a deadline, you gotto have really good reasons.
And even then, most of the time,they just ignore you because
(06:06):
they can, because they give you30 days to respond.
Now, it's important for you tounderstand that whichever type
of appeal, whichever you do, youhave to understand that in order
for you to win your claim, youhave to know how to present what
type of evidence for what typeof situation in these type of
(06:29):
appeals process.
I want you to win, but you'renot always going to win every
single time.
Most of the time people win onthe second or third appeal,
believe it or not.
So it's important for you ifyou're going to have a chance to
win your claim to understandwhich one's best for you in this
process.
(06:49):
So let's begin.
Now, when I talk about winningthe claim, you have to
understand that the vast in theappeal is that you or if you're
going to use a representativeare allowed to enter into the
official record additionaldocuments and details about your
case which have not beenpreviously presented so if you
think you weren't thoroughenough on a certain point you
(07:11):
have newer evidence oradditional evidence that's what
they are going to focus on oneach appeal each appeal is going
to be based on additionalevidence I don't care which of
the three you choose okay now Ifyour appeal fails and you have
extra details in the officialrecord, you want to make sure
that it's added to your file.
(07:31):
These extra details can provevaluable at every level of the
appeal, so you want to bethorough and you want to
aggregate as much newinformation as you can for each
appeal.
If you happen to win the firstappeal, then you're lucky, as
most people don't, in myopinion, unless you get people
that really know what they'redoing and know how to do the
first appeal that haveexperience like me or certain
(07:54):
attorneys.
and consultants and unionstewards.
If you happen to not win, don'tfret.
There's some valuableinformation here that you can
use to help assist you with yourmultiple appeal denials.
First of all, let's talk aboutthe first one, oral hearing and
review of the record.
(08:14):
You have a review of the recordoption.
That one is held by the branchof hearing and review.
Now, this decision is made bywhat's called a hearing officer.
You or your rep can submit newevidence in writing prior to the
decision in order to bestdocument your case file.
And I impress upon you that youshould do this because the oral
(08:36):
hearing is by far, in myopinion, a better option than
the review of the written recordas it is transcribed by a court
reporter and you and your rephave a chance to speak and ask
questions and to also testifywhen necessary to further add
information or further documentcorrect any and all of the
(08:57):
deficiency claims that yourclaims examiners put in your
current case file denial.
The oral hearing also allows youto have witnesses testify as
well as subpoena witnesses totestify on your behalf that
don't want to.
Sometimes people don't want toget involved, and you say, well,
you saw it.
I'm going to subpoena you.
Now, there are two types of oralhearings.
(09:17):
There's an in-person oralhearing, and there's a remote
oral hearing.
In my opinion, the remote oralhearing is the better one, and
I'll explain why here in asecond.
But let's talk about thein-person oral hearing first.
The in-oral hearing, you and oryour rep will have a hearing
officer and a transcriberphysically in the same room.
(09:38):
The transcriber is going torecord for the record all of the
conversation, all the evidencethat's entered into the record.
Now, your agency, the OWCPagency, can have a
representative at the hearing.
But listen, an OWCPrepresentative, like a claims
examiner or their supervisor,they are not allowed to testify
(10:00):
or participate in the hearing,only observe.
Now, this type of oral hearingis conducted face-to-face and
can take up to six months in myopinion sometimes even longer to
get a date for you to have yourhearing heard which in my
opinion is risky so you got tobe careful about doing it face
(10:21):
to face because you may have towait an additional six months
before you're actually going toget any treatment or you may not
be getting paid or you knowthere's a lot of benefits that
you're going to miss out offerfor you know months and months
and months so consider that whenyou're considering doing an oral
hearing face-to-face.
(10:41):
Now the other type of oralhearing which I like is the
telephonic oral hearing and it'sbetter for the follow two
reasons in my opinion.
First, the time to have thehearing is reduced usually from
a few weeks to about a couple ofmonths.
The reason for that is that thehearing officer does not have to
travel to conduct a hearing andis held over the telephone which
allows all the parties to attendfrom a remote location which
(11:05):
makes a geographic much easierto get it scheduled in a faster
time period.
So in my opinion, I wouldrequest a telephonic oral
hearing, but that's just myopinion.
Now, at the oral hearing, theclaimant has a right to do a
pre-hearing conference wherethey can discuss with the
hearing officer the issue to bediscussed, and that's usually
(11:27):
done in the form of a responseletter back and forth.
You usually get a hearingofficer that'll send you a
letter requesting moreinformation about the appeal,
And I've had some people thathave won on their oral hearings
on just their presentationpre-hearing to the hearing
officer.
But anyway, you present that andin the pre-hearing officer, the
(11:52):
hearing officer will review thepre-hearing conference
documents.
before they start the hearing.
And it'll discuss what the caseis lacking if asked.
So if you can, make sure you'redetailed in your pre-hearing
discussion points that arerequested of you by the hearing
(12:13):
officer so that they have a goodreview and a good understanding
of your hearing complaint fromyour pre-hearing documents.
So now that we're going to startthe hearing, after the
pre-hearing, the pre-hearing thehearing officer will go on the
record and describe what wasdiscussed in all that
(12:34):
pre-hearing back and forthwritten responses.
The reporter will transcribe thehearing and the transcription
will be entered into the record.
Now in that record will becontained what is needed to win
your claim and or what isdeficient in your claim.
The hearing officer will sweareveryone and his witnesses over
the phone and you will be askedto testify at the hearing or
(12:57):
your representative can testify.
Then turns the case over to youand the claimant or your rep and
during this phase the claimantcan testify but also any of the
witnesses you've asked orsubpoenaed and your
representative can all speak.
And your representative can askfor an additional 30 days if
(13:18):
they feel like they've gotfurther evidence that they can
submit, including other medicalevidence that will be needed to
win your claim.
So that is something that'sallowable post-hearing.
All right, you can ask for, youhave up to 30 days to submit
further evidence once thetestimony phase of the oral
hearing is over when everyonehangs up.
(13:39):
So for this reason, the oralhearing is by far the best way
to further document your casefile and have a chance to win,
in my opinion.
Now you have the right to skipan oral hearing or review of the
written record and move directlyto a reconsideration, but I
don't advise you to do thisbecause what you don't
understand is that yourreconsideration is going to be
(14:00):
reconsidered by the exact samepeople who denied your claim in
the first place.
So that's not the audience youwant to go back to.
This is the same audience thatsaid, nope, and denied your
claim.
So you're going to reconsider itto the same audience that's
already denied it?
That's not a good idea.
That typically doesn't go wellfor the first deal of appeal.
(14:23):
Now, I cannot distress to you inmy opinion how important oral
hearing is to avoid further andfurther delays by phone.
You have exactly 30 days fromthe date of the initial decision
letter that you receive to askfor this very important appeal.
So remember, of all the appealsprocess, the shortest date of
(14:45):
response to request this type ofhearing or this hearing appeal
is the oral hearing.
30 days.
So you only have 30 days torespond and don't forget that.
Reconsiderations are differentand even ECABs are different and
we'll talk about those in asecond.
So let's dive intoreconsideration because it's the
next type of appeal or numbertwo on that sheet.
(15:09):
That is called areconsideration.
When you check off the boxnumber two, a reconsideration,
you're basically can requestthat any adverse decision made
in your claim, including anadverse decision made by ECAB.
However, to request a atreconsideration, you must have
the date of the decision whichis being appealed and either a
(15:30):
legal argument or new medicalevidence which was not in the
record at the time that thedecision for you requesting this
reconsideration was made.
Sometimes reconsideration appealis necessary in order to further
document your case prior tosubmitting your case to ECAP,
and I've done it that waybefore.
(15:51):
One point is to remember that areconsideration is not an
absolute right.
If you, the claimant, do nothave a legal argument or
substantial new medical evidenceto submit in support of your
claim, then OWCP has the rightto deny your request for
reconsideration at face valuebecause nothing new has been
submitted.
(16:11):
Now, the last type of appeal,well, hold on, let me finish
reconsideration.
The one thing aboutreconsideration that I see done
successfully that does work wellis if you really get good
causation narratives byexperienced OWCP medical
personnel.
If you've got a medical providerwho really knows what they're
doing and knows how to explainhow work-related factors cause
(16:35):
the work-related injury andexplain with medical evidence
and citation references whatsupports that this kind of
activity causes these kinds ofstrains or dislocations or tears
or fractures or whatever, thattype of evidence is really good
for reconsideration.
if you didn't do it the firsttime.
(16:58):
Now, the last type of appealthat we have is called an ECAB.
That's the EmployeesCompensation Appeals Board.
Now, with an ECAB, you have tounderstand that this one has,
oh, wait a minute, I made amistake.
Let's go back.
In a reconsideration, it has oneadvantage.
I forgot.
(17:18):
The one advantage about areconsideration is if you miss
the deadline for an oralhearing, let's say you miss the
30-day deadline, areconsideration, you have one
year, one year of time in orderto file and before your
expiration date expires.
(17:39):
So they send you a letter, youhave one year to respond if
you're going to go for areconsideration.
Okay, sorry, I forgot.
Now going back to ECAP, whenyou're sending your case to the
appeals board, you cannot addany new evidence or information
to your case file.
Did you hear me?
Listen again.
(18:00):
You cannot add any newinformation or evidence in your
case file to an ECAB appealsboard.
The case must be appealed withthe record as it is.
Now, in that particular type offiling, they give you six months
to file for an appeal panelboard decision, or appeal board
(18:24):
panel board members to reviewyour case for a decision.
uh...
When you appeal to this board,this appeal is handled in
Washington, D.C.
by a three-member panel that'sappointed by the Department of
Labor.
Remember, these three membersare OWCP employees.
(18:46):
You have exactly one year fromthe date of the latest decision
in your case to request an ECABappeal.
If you let the one-year limittime expire, then your case is
over.
If you choose either an oralhearing or a review of the
record, then you never lose theright to a reconsideration of
your claim as long as you askfor a reconsideration within a
(19:08):
year of any decision in yourcase.
Remember to always read whateverdecision you receive thoroughly
to see why your case was deniedand if there are any new legal
arguments you can make, or ifthere are any new medical
evidence you can use to betterdocument your case in order to
win it.
you have one year from the dateof the ECAB decision to file a
(19:31):
reconsideration.
Now what I see done and this iswhat I recommend is that you do
the oral hearing and then afterthe oral hearing if you don't
win you start thereconsideration process.
The reconsideration process Um,you want to start developing new
(19:53):
medical evidence in your, inyour reconsiderations because
you're building a case file.
Once you've gotten enoughreconsideration evidence, then
all that evidence can besubmitted.
If you will lose it, all threeappeals, uh, to the ECAB appeal
board, who's going to look atthe entire record from start to
finish.
And most of the time, if I don'twin an oral hearing, which I
(20:16):
have only lost, I then thereconsideration, I usually win
by the second appeal.
But most of the time, if you doreconsiderations, like in my
office, the reconsiderations areusually won on the first try
because I'm good at doingcausation narratives and
understand how to satisfy themedical legal arguments for the
(20:38):
five element argument, you know,and I very rarely go to ECAB
because ECAB rulings are verydifficult to win because usually
the problem is in the medicaldocumentation.
There's holes in it.
So that's the appeals process.
So I wanted to go over that withyou and make sure that you had
(20:59):
an understanding of how tofigure out which of those three
types of appeals process is thebest fit for you.
Okay?
Now, if you're in the processand you're running out of time
and you're having a difficulttime figuring out what should I
do, what type of appeal, you canalways reach out to me.
(21:20):
But I will tell you, there aremany people that reach out to me
that are looking for an appealthat there's too much damage
done to their case or they'vemissed a deadline and I can't
help you.
So if you think you need helpand you want me to help you or
you want somebody around you tohelp you, make sure you pay
attention to the deadlines,okay?
(21:41):
all right i think that's it ibelieve i hear the music coming
so I think that does it for thisepisode of Federal Workers' Comp
Coffee Break Podcast.
I want to thank you forlistening.
I want to remind you to sharethis podcast with other federal
workers you think would benefitfrom this information.
Be sure and leave a five-starreview of whatever podcast
platform that you found this atso other federal workers could
(22:04):
find me online if you think youwould like to help others
because it was other peopledoing the same thing that helped
you find my podcast online andit helps benefit everyone that's
in government Thank you.
(22:41):
813-215-4356 and or813-877-6900.
Also, if you're in another stateand you want me to assist you
with your claim questions orassistance for your doctor, you
can email me atfedcompconsultants at
protonmail.com.
All right, guys, I think that'sgood enough.
(23:02):
I'll warm up this coffee and getgoing.
As usual, I want to thank all ofyou that are listening, who put
on that uniform, that badge,deliver that mail, take care of
our veterans, and make thisgovernment run.
This is my big thank you to you.
I do this for free just for you.
We couldn't do this without allthe work all of you out there
do, so thank you very much foryour service.
I know it's not an easy job.
And remember, if you have aninjured federal worker's claim
(23:25):
and you need assistance, I'mhere to help.
All right, see you next time.
Off to get my coffee warm.
Keep sending those emails,questions, and comments.
I appreciate hearing from all ofyou.
See you next time.
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