In a decision issued this past Wednesday, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals held that an employee who has been indefinitely suspended has two separate MSPB Appeal rights. The first is the right to challenge the imposition of the indefinite suspension, and the second to challenge the continuation of the indefinite suspension. Rhodes v. Merit Systems Protection Board, Fed. Cir. No. 2006-3340; MSPB Docket No. NY-0752-06-0015-I-1 (May 23, 2007 ).

In Rhodes, an employee was indefinitely [...]

I’ve already posted on why the Oral Reply may be the most important part of the MSPB appeal process. (Click here to read “The Oral Reply – the Most Important Part of Your Appeal” ). In this post, I am continuing my discussion of “10 Ways to Lose an MSPB Appeal”. One sure way to help yourself lose before the MSPB is to fail to deliver an Oral Reply.

The other day, I delivered an Oral Reply on behalf [...]

In any proposal letter, there should be a section that allows you to request the “material relied on” before responding to the proposed action. It is important that you request this information, for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that it is much harder to get the information from the Agency in the discovery process before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

Often times, Agencies do not provide the material relied upon – they [...]

In our continuing discussion, “10 Ways to Lose an MSPB Appeal”, I would like to turn to a common problem in Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) cases – employees want to use their MSPB appeal (or EEOC case) as a tool to get revenge .

By the time most federal employees get in touch with my Firm, they have been pretty substantially harmed by their Agency. This occurs in any number of ways: they’ve lost their job (and as a [...]

Usually, this is one of the first questions our Firm is asked when contacted by a potential new client. Here are some different examples of the attorney fees and costs an appellant might incur litigating their case before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB):

Hourly-Retainer: This is probably the most common type of fee arrangement between attorneys and federal employees. The appellant deposits an agreed upon sum of money, and the attorney places that sum in a [...]

Continuing in our series on “10 Ways to Lose an MSPB Appeal”, today we will discuss a common way to shoot yourself in the foot. Ignore a reasonable settlement offer.

A common misconception about settlement is that it means you are giving in. This is not true. Settlement is a way for two parties to put a dispute behind them by finding some middle ground. The Agency won’t get everything it wants, and the [...]

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 [...]