I’ve
written about a lot of the pitfalls of being an OWCP claimant and how it’s not
just OWCP that takes advantage of you.
I
recently heard about a “consulting” business for the legal side of an OWCP
claim, the representation side. To me, this appears to be a new way for someone
to make money off claimants trying to get help with their OWCP claims.
Although
this particular business has been running since January 2018 (more than a year
and a half), the website has almost no content, including exactly what they do
and how they do it.
My
guess, because who knows, is this business takes a monthly fee from OWCP
representatives like me and then they funnel people like you to my business. Or
it could be they take a monthly fee from those who need these services, such as
unions and associations.
Or
it could be both. This way they’d be paid both coming and going; by those like
me who do the work and those like unions with claimants that need the work.
This
plops someone into your lap to handle your claim, without knowing they’re not
qualified until it’s too late. The consulting firm doing this gets paid and has
no liability in how your claim is handled or who it’s handled by. They just
cash checks and make money.
But here’s the thing, that means that people like you, the claimants, have no idea who they’re getting or the depth of their skill and quality of their work. As long as someone can pay the monthly fee, the representative gets claimants sent to them whether the representative is qualified or not.
For
example, I know of a newly formed association that offers legal services to its
members. An attorney with minimal experience in federal employment law handles
the majority of their legal issues.
This
attorney’s background is in tax, property, and general law. This attorney was
hired, not because of skill and experience, not because they are the most
qualified, but because they are a friend of the person who formed the
association.
If
you’re a federal employee with a legal issue, the last thing you want is
someone learning on the fly. Federal employees come up against agencies who
have their own legal teams, who are prepared, experienced and willing to play
dirty, to lie and cheat.
Do
you really want your representation to be someone who handled your divorce? Who
wrote the appeal for your property tax problem? Who just started handling OWCP
claims? Or is new at disciplinary actions? If your representation isn’t experienced, the agencies will know that
and will roll right over them.
At
the end of the day, these people go home with no adverse effect to their lives.
That is not necessarily how it goes for the employee whose life is adversely
affected by the issue they’re dealing with, whether that’s an OWCP claim or
another federal employment issue.
Don’t
get me wrong, I’m all for making money, but I do have a problem when claimants
are taken advantage of or spend money and don’t get what they paid for. When they're told someone is good, but they're not. But it
seems to me that anyone reputable, who knows what they’re doing doesn’t need to
have claimants funneled to them by a "consulting" firm.
People
can put out information that makes them sound experienced. Information that
convinces you of their knowledge, qualifications, and skill.
But remember what’s
on someone’s website is designed to get your business, to get them paid and isn’t
necessarily the truth. Someone can advertise their skill and experience with
federal employment law and/or OWCP when in reality they have little or no experience.
As
we know, many people who handle OWCP claims are less than knowledgeable and
care more about your bank account rather than helping you. This ends up costing
the claimant money they don’t have and delaying the issues of their claim even
more.
Most
claimants don’t know how OWCP works or how to fight them and many hire help.
Unfortunately, sometimes claimants don’t know the person they hired isn’t
competent until it’s too late. As an example, the most well-known OWCP
attorney, who does a lot of advertising, has the worst win record of anyone
handling OWCP claims.
OWCPland
is a broken, complicated system with a lot of different variables. It is not
something you can just easily learn and just because you learn it, doesn't mean you're good at it.
If you’re going to hire someone or have someone assigned to you, you want the best you can find
and while there are many who take on the OWCP beast, there are very few that
are not only good at it, but have the claimant’s best interest in mind.
So
how can you protect yourself?
Whether
you’re looking on your own or your union/association is “assigning” someone,
start by asking questions, who is the person? Is it just one representative or
a revolving door?
Once
you know their name check them out yourself. Even some unions and associations
fall into the same traps as claimants. Some don’t care who you end up with.
Some believe what they’re told by the people who are selling their services.
Some
may be using this “consulting” firm to give them an “expert” because they believe the "consulting" firm has done the checking for them.
Some see
the popular ones who spend the most on advertising and assume they must be good
at what they do.
Once you have the name(s) you can easily Google
them and see if there are any reviews, see if people are talking about them and
what they’re saying.
Go
to their Facebook page and read the reviews. Is anything written? If not, it’s
very likely that “Five Star” review was done by a friend or family member who
was asked to leave a “Five Star” review so they look good.
Most
(not all) people who leave a review write something that says how the person
helped them or didn’t help them. But if someone has multiple
reviews/recommendations and none of them have anything written, that’s a red
flag those reviews/recommendations aren't legitimate.
Is
there more than one “Five Star” review left on the same day? That’s a clue the
review may not be legitimate because it’s rare to get more than one legitimate
review on the same day. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, just that it’s fishy
especially if nothing is written in review.
Go
one further, look at their personal Facebook page if they have one. See who
likes their posts; are any of those people the same people leaving those “Five
Star” reviews? Are the "reviewers" on their friends list?
In
the case of the attorney I mentioned above, in addition to more than one review on the same day, every “Five Star” review and
recommendation was done by someone who appears to be a friend from their personal Facebook page and not a single word is written in “review” of the
attorney.
No
one, not even the best can guarantee a win but in the case of OWCP, you need
someone who knows what they’re doing. Someone who cares about more than just your bank account.
I’m not going to mention this ‘consulting’
business by name so they get no advertising, but if you are a member of a union
or association (especially a newly formed one) and they "assign" you someone for legal services as part of your dues,
don’t rely on their choices without doing some homework of your own and that
doesn’t just apply to OWCP.
Should you want to see my Facebook page, here's the link:
