MSPB Case Summaries compiles and condenses precedential and nonprecedential MSPB and Federal Circuit decisions of significance. The 16th edition of the guide includes decisions from 1999 through early 2025. Arranged by subject matter areas of Board jurisprudence and further categorized alphabetically, representatives and researchers rely on MSPB Case Summaries to quickly locate relevant decisions, use the hyperlink to access the full text and cut and paste the summaries directly into motions and briefs.

Practitioners, researchers and adjudicators who are involved in the litigation of Board cases use this guide for its reporting of cases relating to:

• Adverse Actions—including constructive adverse actions
• Arbitration/Collective Bargaining Related Issues—including Board jurisdiction over arbitration decisions, elections of remedies
• Attorney Fees—including prevailing party status
• Board Procedures—including dismissals, prehearing procedures, reopening and reconsideration, and withdrawals
• Compliance and Enforcement—including return to duty
• Constitutional Issues—including search and seizure, First and Fifth Amendment issues, and equal protection
• Defenses—including collateral estoppel, disparate penalties, res judicata, and prohibited personnel practices
• Discovery
• Discrimination—including disabilities, mixed cases procedure, and remedies
• Evidence—including circumstantial and direct, credibility findings, and new and material evidence
• Harmful Error—including errors in the proposal notice and reply process
• Hearings—including right to a hearing, telephonic hearings, witnesses, and testimony
• Interim Relief
• Judges—including authority and bias
• Judicial Review
• Jurisdiction—including appointments, excepted service, nature of the personnel action, and probationers
• Leave
• Mitigation—including the Douglas factors
• Mootness
• Nexus—including nexus determinations
• Pay Issues
• Performance-Based Actions Under Chapter 43—including performance improvement periods and performance standards
• Prohibited Personnel Practices—including burdens of proof, IRAs, and whistleblowing reprisal
• Reduction In Force
• Reemployment Rights
• Remedies—including back pay and reinstatement
• Representation
• Retirement—including annuities, and disability and optional retirements
• Sanctions
• Settlement—breach, compliance and enforcement, construction and interpretation, last chance agreements, and setting aside an agreement
• Statutory and Regulatory Construction
• Substantive Offenses—including insubordination, negligence, security clearance issues, absences, threats, misuse of government property, falsification, and more
• Timeliness—including excuses for late filings
• USERRA
• VEOA

The compilation serves as a point of quick reference for attorneys and researchers who understand the basic structure of Board caselaw and is a useful adjunct to the Guide to Merit Systems Protection Board Law and Practice. Checking both references reduces the possibility that a relevant case will be missed during research of Board law.

Available as a softcover book and/or a PDF file with many useful features delivered on a CD-ROM, USB Flash Drive, or download. Hyperlinks allow the reader to move quickly between the Table of Contents and Index entries and the corresponding portions of the text. Internal hyperlinks serve as a cross-reference feature within the text. Cases are linked to internet cites so that the entire case can be viewed.

Related Items

(2026) MSPB Case Summaries

Updated annually, this encyclopedic guide condenses MSPB and Federal Circuit decisions from 1999 through early 2026 into concise, usable summaries. Cases are arranged by subject matter areas and further categorized alphabetically. The MSPB Reference Materials free download and an index and table of cases rounds out this research tool. Major topics include adverse and performance actions, arbitration/collective bargaining issues, attorney fees, Board procedure, jurisdiction and judicial review, defenses, discrimination, evidence, harmful error, hearings, mitigation, prohibited personnel practices, retirement, reemployment, remedies, RIFs, settlements, substantive offenses, timeliness, USERRA and VEOA. (more details)

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