If you’re a USPS letter carrier that got injured by a civilian driver while on the job having been struck by their vehicle, you are said to hold two separate and distinct legal claims: a federal workers’ compensation claim under OWCP for your medical care as well as immediate wages, as well as a third-party personal injury tort claim against the at-fault driver’s insurance provider. Should you come out victorious in the PI case and perhaps garner a six-figure settlement, you may feel like there’s absolutely nothing that can bring you down to earth…until your federal medical benefits come to a screeching halt. 

How OWCP Subrogation and FECA Section 8132 Affect Your Settlement

Many postal workers, and in some instances, their personal injury attorneys, do not have a nuanced understanding of the aggressive and often unfair subrogation techniques under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act or FECA. Once the third-party auto accident claim resolves, 5 U.S.C. § 8132 makes it possible for the federal government to attach a statutory lien in order to recover every dollar that OWCP doled out in order to pay for your medical care. Thinking you’re doing the right thing, you write a check to the Department of Labor, with the assumption that your OWCP file shall remain open so you cannot only continue receiving the Schedule Award, but also future surgeries. However, OWCP informs you that there is a surplus from the net profit you were awarded via your personal injury settlement, and flags your ECOMP file instantly. 

OWCP then says you’re not eligible for any and all future CA-7 wage-loss claims as well as physical therapy sessions, as the government legally requires that you spend down your third-party settlement in its entirety before they even put down any money for your medical and other forms of care under FECA. This leaves you with a catch-22 situation, where you just won a settlement, but then have to grapple with the fact that you may not be able to afford medical care as an injured postal worker. If this is what you’re currently going through, keep reading to find out how our experienced USPS injured worker attorneys can force OWCP’s hand to ensure that you get your wage-loss and other benefits and medical care approved regardless of your personal injury settlement after sustaining an auto accident while delivering mail. 

What Happens to Your OWCP Benefits When Your Settlement Creates a Surplus?

Are you looking for the best OWCP federal workers’ compensation attorney for your USPS heat injury claim? Please call the experienced federal employee attorneys at McCready Law NOW at (314) 481-63338 to learn more about how we can help you fight management controversion and secure your FECA benefits. The experienced injured federal worker attorneys at McCready Law bring to the table combined experience spanning over 90 years where we have helped postal workers across the country navigate the Department of Labor and OWCP bureaucracy with speed, efficiency, and reliability. To date, we have recovered over $500 million for our clients, and our deep understanding of USPS operational tactics and OWCP adjudication standards places us at a level that is unmatched in federal workers’ compensation law. We have nationwide reach, handling cases on an agreed-upon, transparent basis, and your first consultation is 100% FREE. 

Regardless of where your postal route is located in the United States, McCready Law can assist with your OWCP claim from start to finish, connecting you with qualified physicians who understand federal causality and fighting aggressive agency controversions so you can focus on recovering. Need to speak to someone regarding protecting your continuation of pay and securing claim acceptance? Call us NOW at (314) 481-63338 to learn more about our legal services – our intake team is standing by to route your call to one of our experienced attorneys. 

Using the EN-122 Statement of Recovery to Unfreeze the OWCP Injured Worker Surplus

OWCP operates under the assumption that money that is won from a personal injury settlement after getting injured on the job as a postal worker is not only fungible, but that it is also subject to the 5 U.S.C. § 8132 legal statute which talks about surplus credit offset. Even when settlements are designated for non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, the government is said to possess a sweeping right of disbursement against third-party recoveries. Attorneys who only deal with personal injury claims and have never had experience with the federal government only discover this too late. 

However, and thanks to our vast experience handling hundreds of USPS injured worker claims, we are able to execute a preemptive legal strategy before the tort release is signed, and Form EN-1122 is finalized. 

Here’s how we do this:

1. Preemptive Medical Apportionment: We don’t give the liability insurer the opportunity to draft a general release. Instead, we work closely with your treating doctor or surgeon to draft a binding future-cost projection so it is clear that you will need certain medical procedures going forward as well as their related costs. By doing this, we prevent OWCP from using your tort recovery as the basis for their surplus deductions 
2. Contesting EN-1122 Calculation: When the Department of Labor issues Form EN-122, it’s quite often that the mandatory deductions are miscalculated. By auditing the federal figures, we ensure that things like court litigation costs, witness fees, independent attorney fees are all bundled together so they can be uses to take the surplus figure down or even completely eliminate it in some instances. 

OWCP Injured Postal Worker Lawyers – Call Us Today! 

If you had your ongoing medical coverage and other wage loss benefits wiped out after getting injured by a civilian on the road due to the surplus credit rule, there’s still hope. Please give our best USPS injured worker attorneys a call NOW at (314) 481-63338 regardless of where you are so we can push back using legal strategies we’ve honed for over a collective century on your behalf. Remember, the call is 100% FREE, and there is no legal obligation. Thanks for choosing McCready Law, and we look forward to helping you.