The next post in the series “10 Ways to Lose an MSPB Appeal” discusses a common problem in appeals before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) – attacking Agency witnesses as liars, without evidence.

Now, people do lie. It’s a fact of life that unfortunately seeps into just about every courtroom at one time or another. However, not every statement that doesn’t echo your version of events is necessarily a lie. Sometimes a witness is just stating the version [...]

Bill Fisher, at Bill Fisher Blogspot has compiled a pretty substantial list of recent Federal whistle-blowers, and the high price they have paid.

Click here to view the list and read an excellent article about Federal Government Whistleblowers.

Now, how about a stronger Whistleblower Protection Act, and possibly send Mr. Bloch (Office of Special Counsel) back to where he came from?

Today’s post, the next in the series “10 Ways to Lose an MSPB Appeal” discusses the easiest problem to avoid, but the one problem that occurs most commonly: Don’t file your Appeal on time.

The Merit Systems Protection Board is strict about their filing timeline. With thousands of appeals filed each year, and with the short time that an MSPB Judge has to hear a case an issue a decision, the strictness of the timeliness requirements [...]

NBC Dateline will present a report on Sunday, evaluating the merits of two different types of body armor for soldiers: Dragon Skin and the Interceptor.

Federal employees may find interesting the story of the engineer, Nevin Rupert, who spent 7 years evaluating the type of body armor that the Department of Defense decided not to purchase. Click here to read a portion of his interview with NBC.

Federal employees will not be shocked to hear Mr. Rupert’s story – whistleblowers [...]

Today’s post addresses the first of 10 Ways to Lose an MSPB Appeal: Don’t request the material relied upon at the Reply stage.

Federal statutes require that the Agency inform the employee of his right to review the material relied upon to support the proposed action. This right will customarily be stated in your proposal letter. Despite having this right, if the Agency fails to offer and provide the material relied upon, the Appellant does not [...]

All too often in Chapter 75 removal cases, the Deciding Official glosses over the Douglas factors, placing inappropriate emphasis on certain factors. Agency Deciding Officials all too frequently over-emphasize factors such as the gravity of the offense, the harm to the “national interest”, and sometimes, the fact that the appellant is a manager or supervisory employee. By contrast Agency Deciding Officials often fail to consider other Douglas factors, such as length of service, prior disciplinary history and [...]

Here is a link to a great blog entry with a downloadable collection of MSPB cases addressing “Misuse” charges.

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/22175/7785561

Click here to read the Firm’s blog entry regarding MSPB Misuse of Credit Card ChargesÂ

Over the next few days, I will discuss each of these in turn. For now, I want to briefly outline what are the ten (10) things that I have noted tend to contribute to a Federal employee’s loss of his or her case before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). Click on the underlined header to each section to read more about that particular point.
You can increase your chances of losing your MSPB appeal if you:

1. Don’t request all of [...]

Agencies often view Oral Replies as mere rituals. But they are much more than that. An Oral Reply is your only chance to convince a Deciding Official not to take the action that the Proposing Official would like to take.

Agency proposing officials and human resources specialists look at oral replies as mere rituals. They will give you a limited time to schedule a reply, and even more limited time to prepare for the reply. [...]

Agencies often charge employees with a variety of misconduct charges that all come under the umbrella of “Falsification”. These charges are typically: fraud, forgery, misrepresentation and falsification.

The key to each of these charges is that the Agency must show that the employee intended to deceive or mislead the Agency in some way. If an employee is just negligent and provides erroneous information, the falsification charge will most likely not prevail. The MSPB has said that falsification requires [...]