Disability Insurance Claims

The Hartford is one of the country’s largest Long Term Disability Insurance Carriers and is notorious for using video surveillance to deny benefits.

The video surveillance is usually conducted without the permission of the claimant and can take place over several days or weeks. Tens of thousands of dollars are spend on just one claim in order to conduct secretive video until they get footage that they think will support a claim denial. The Hartford is actually permitted to videotape you anytime you are in the public domain but you don’t need to be worried about the surveillance unless you are engaging in activities that do not conform to what your treating physicians have stated that you can and cannot do.

Long Term Disability Insurance claimants are required under the terms of their policies to comply with all reasonable requests by their own insurance carrier. The Employee Retirement Income Securities Act, commonly referred to as ERISA applies to most disability insurance policies. The result is that ERISA gives the disabled claimant very little room to argue that the insurance company’s requests are “unreasonable” under the terms of the policy. Therefore, claimants are frequently required to undergo difficult Functional Capacity Exams (FCE) to continue their claim for benefits.

Frequently, employers will terminate an employee when their disability insurance company denies the employee their disability benefits. When this unfortunate situation happens, the disabled employee may be forced to seek health benefits under what is known as COBRA. If you qualify for COBRA and your rights have been violated, you need to know.

COBRA is the Federal law requiring employers to provide certain employees with continuation of group health coverage. Not all employers are required to offer COBRA and not all employees are eligible for COBRA (i.e. companies with less than 20 employees, certain church and federal government plans are not subject to COBRA).

Long Term Disability Insurance claimants can frequently feel abused by their own insurance companies during the claims process. The Employee Retirement Income Securities Act (ERISA). ERISA applies to most disability insurance claims and therefore claimants have little recourse against such abusive tactics. The most common is secretive video surveillance of the disabled claimant.

Long Term Disability Insurance claims can be difficult to pursue in an administrative appeal or in federal court. One of the difficulties for claimants to overcome is the restrictive rules that have evolved from the common law governing the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act (ERISA). ERISA applies to most disability insurance claims.

Long Term Disability Insurance claims are usually governed under federal ERISA regulations. If a claimant goes through the administrative appeals process and is denied their disability benefits, their only remedy is to file a civil lawsuit to enforce their rights under the policy. However under ERISA law, a claimant is usually not allowed to introduce expert vocational opinion evidence to the Court unless it was submitted during the prior administrative appeal. Therefore, it is vital to consider whether a Vocational Report is needed early on in the administrative appeals process.

Long Term Disability Insurance claims are usually governed under federal ERISA regulations. If a claimant goes through the administrative appeals process and is denied their disability benefits, their only remedy is to file a civil lawsuit to enforce their rights under the policy. This leads to several important questions. In part one of this two part blog we explored who can sue and who can be sued. In part two we explore where to file your lawsuit and how long you have to get the suit on file.

Filing an ERISA Law Suit If My Administrative Appeal is Denied

Long Term Disability Insurance claims are usually governed under federal ERISA regulations. If a claimant goes through the administrative appeals process and is denied their disability benefits, their only remedy is to file a civil lawsuit to enforce their rights under the policy. This leads to several important questions. In part one of this two part blog we explore who can sue and who can be sued:

Long Term Disability Insurance claims can be difficult to pursue in federal court when the primary disabling condition is chronic pain syndrome. One of the difficulties for claimants to overcome is the restrictive rules that have evolved from the common law governing the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act (ERISA). ERISA applies to most disability insurance claims.