Articles Posted in New and Newsworthy

Debra Rose worked for a company which provided health benefits to its employees. Due to severe illness, she needed a liver transplant. The company handling the health claim required Debra to sign an authorization; with that authorization, the claim management continuously notified Debra’s employer of her health status without her express permission. Once Debra’s employer…

Disability insurance is intended to provide financial protection for the individual who becomes unable to work due to a disability. There are two kinds of disability insurance coverage; one through individually purchased insurance policies and the other through employment at a company, or through an association or specific affiliation. Group policies are regulated through the…

Disabled attorneys have a specific challenge to overcome when filing for disability benefits. Due to the generally sedentary setting of the occupation, physical illness must impact one’s ability to work in an office at a computer and present cases in court. Often the insurers simply focus on whether an attorney can physically “sit” rather than…

Cognitive deficits are an important consideration when determining disability. However, insurance companies tend to undervalue the debilitating impact that pain medication can have on a person’s mental state. If a claimant is suffering from cognitive deficits, the insurance company will usually handle the claim in one of two ways. First, insurance companies will ignore the…

In many long-term disability insurance policies, insurance companies struggle to almost always apply a mental illness limitation when the insured has both mental and physical complaints. The language in these mental illness limitations vary by policy. In George v. Reliance Std. Life Ins. Co., 776 F.3d 349 (5th Cir. Tex. 2015), the Court grappled with…

Litigation to recover denied disability benefits is costly. Not only must the claimant suffer the absence of any disability benefits during the court case, but they must pay counsel for representing them in court. Most attorneys charge a contingency fee for representing disabled claimants in federal litigation; our office is no exception. This means, that…

When you become unable to continue working for an employer due to disability which is long-lasting, you may approach the employer for a severance if it is determined you will never be able to return to that employment. If you are fortunate enough to obtain a severance, be careful, because the agreement you are required…

In Stevens v. Liberty Mutual together with esteemed attorney, Mark D. DeBofsky, Esq. of DeBofsky & Associates, P.C. we continue our battle against Liberty to reverse their denial of disability benefits to a disabled bank employee. We won our motion for summary judgment in January, and the Court ordered that Liberty pay Mr. Stevens his…

Often our clients are denied disability benefits on the basis of the insurers’ conclusion that they can work in a “sedentary occupation.” Insurers also base their analysis often on something known as the “national economy.” By ignoring the demands of our client’s individual job workplace and environment, the insurers misclassify a job and the duties…

A recent ruling received by Bonny G. Rafel, LLC examined the recent habit of insurers tampering with the ERISA regulated mandates for deciding appeals of denied ERISA claims. We have received many letters from insurers advising us that they will not start the appeal review until we notify them that we will not be furnishing…