When an altercation or arrest leads to an injured police officer, there are often allegations against the police officer. These allegations are generally handled in the disciplinary hearings process. However, if you are injured and thinking about filing for a disability pension, those allegations may have an impact on an your ability to receive a disability pension. While the pension application and appeals process is the same if you are a member of PFRS, PERS or the TPAF, each retirement system has different rules when it comes to other aspects of the pension process. One area where the systems have different rules is how disciplinary allegations affect your ability to collect a disability pension. If there is disciplinary action taken against you, the pension board can take away time from your pension account or revoke your pension entirely. If you are a member of PFRS, a pension application must have been received by the board prior to the revocation of time. If the application was received by the board after during the time that was revoked, the revocation of time must be appealed or you could lose the ability to receive a disability pension. However, if you are a member of PERS or TPAF you could still receive your disability pension even though the pension board revoked time following disciplinary charges. Nevertheless even if your could still receive your disability pension, a revocation of time could affect the amount of the disability pension by thousands of dollars every month.
If you are considering filing for a disability pension but have a disciplinary issue, you need an attorney who is experienced in handling public employee disability pensions. I suggest contacting our office through our website or by calling the office at 609-246-0668 and scheduling an appointment to discuss your options.