When most people approach me about litigating their ERISA medical disability claim, they don’t really understand how the case might work out. After all, you either win or you lose, right?
Not necessarily. In fact, there are actually four different potential outcomes that you might face if you decide to go this route.
ERISA: The Four Disability Claim Outcomes
Here’s how I lay it out for potential clients when they ask me to represent them in this type of claim. The four different types of outcomes you might have are:
Settlement. Instead of going to court to fight your claim, the insurance carrier might just agree to give you money so that you will drop the case and consider the claim settled. Often in these types of situations, you will be required to turn in your insurance policy and find a new carrier. This is called a “buy out” and can be fairly lucrative depending on the situation.
Motion for Summary Judgment. This is where one side or the other believes that the legal evidence in the case is so strongly in their favor that they basically tell the judge that they want him or her to decide without going to trial. This can be good or bad for you depending on what’s already in the evidence, because once summary judgment is requested, you can’t add anything new.
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Bench Trial. You don’t have the right to trial by jury, but you can have the case tried in front of a judge, which is called a bench trial. In these types of trials, the judge will determine what has and hasn’t already been decided based on the outcome of the ERISA claim and then use the trial to examine the remaining issues.
Remand for Another Administrative Appeal. If the judge doesn’t think there’s enough evidence for the case to be decided, he or she has the power to send it back down to the administrative appeal process so that you have to do everything over again. The idea is that both sides are given more time to strengthen their cases, but it can be quite frustrating when these things drag on.
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Because there are so many potential outcomes and variables, it’s important that you work with an experienced disability attorney. Visit our website to find out more information on ERISA disability claims and be sure to download a copy of our free Long Term Disability e-book.
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