About Faunce, Singer & Oatman

We’ll Help You Find Your Way.

The attorneys at Faunce, Singer & Oatman have decades of expertise representing disabled members of CalPERS and County Retirement Systems all over the State of California. We represent miscellaneous employees, all state employees including state safety, CHP officers and personnel, police officers, firefighters, and deputy sheriffs who are members of the California Public Employee’s Retirement System (CalPERS) and the various County Employee’s Retirement Systems (CERL). We have over forty-five appellate and California Supreme Court cases attributed to our efforts and handle cases preferably from the application stage throughout the litigation process.

We have found that the retirement systems have increased efforts to enforce stricter guidelines and requirements for filing applications to prove timeliness including continuous disability in the event the member has delayed in filing since the last date worked or received regular compensation. Local safety officers have the added layer in that they must obtain the finding of disability and industrial cause from the agency which must adhere to mandates recently amended by CalPERS to qualify for the benefits. Systems, whether it be CalPERS or the County Retirement System, utilize its doctors, in addition to the medical evidence that was developed in the worker’s compensation cases, to determine whether the member meets the standard of disability in the disability retirement arena. We have found that these physicians overlook providing work restrictions and merely provide legal conclusions to deny these benefits. 

A critical element in pursuing these benefits includes a properly prepared application and evidence which could mean the difference in a granting of the application or a costly denial. When denied the member many times must hire medical experts to either prepare rebuttal reports and testify in person. A resignation or waiver of rights to reinstate can be detrimental to a member’s rights in the disability retirement arena. 

Our office can assist your clients throughout this process and offer your worker’s compensation case knowledge to avoid pitfalls routinely used to prejudice the member’s rights to disability retirement. We are available to help and if you would like to speak to us, please call 760-451-7377