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Is video surveillance of a disability claimant engaged in non-work related activities sufficient evidence for a disability insurance company to deny disability benefits?

Video surveillance is directly representative of the occupational duties that the person was doing at the time he became disabled. Meaning, does the video surveillance have any weight at all if it does not relate to the type of the job that the person does?

It’s kind of a difficult question to answer. The reason is because what they capture in that disability video surveillance is not necessarily or evenly remotely close sometimes with what the job involved, what the general work activities are. They’ll catch you walking, they’ll catch you driving your car or they can catch you picking up your kids from school. Do any of those things involve the material duties of your occupation, as a surgeon, as a lawyer, as a police officer? No, generally it does not. But I guess what it does capture is just your general activities, your general capabilities, and restrictions and limitations.

Let me give examples of two more recent cases – a case against Prudential Insurance Company, where, the person who is disabled, Prudential denied his claim, this person was a Vice-President of underwriting for a large insurance company, ironically. She was seen on video engaging in activities such as walking, lifting, carrying objects without any apparent discomfort on video. And the court basically said that – you can’t rely on just those activities alone to deny her claim because Prudential Insurance Company never considered how the activities of walking, lifting and carrying demonstrate how she can perform her duties of her occupation as a Vice-President of underwriting. In another case, there was an executive secretary and they got her on video again doing something like shopping or driving her car and they said – well, the video doesn’t show anything about how she is able to type or perform the type of hand movements with the frequency required of her own occupation as an executive secretary. So again, walking, lifting something, talking or even if she was playing tennis has nothing to do with the fine motor skills required for her to do typing.

And the unfortunate thing is that, this is once the courts have already gotten a hold of it, so you have to fight, you have to go through the appeal process, litigation before a court finally comes to that point. Insurance companies will still try to deny the claims regardless of that. For example if I am doing an appeal on an ERISA case and all of a sudden have a video surveillance that shows what you can do in a sedentary level occupation. For example, we are lawyers. Technically, under the physical requirements, we work a sedentary occupation but I guarantee you we are not getting paid because we are able to lift a negligible amount of weight from time to time but the insurance company will still say – well, we think you can sit at your desk all day, you can do this, so you can do your job and not take into account that you are getting paid for your ability. So the insurance companies, regardless of this case law, will still look to deny that claim. If they get you on the surveillance, they’ll say we think your job was light occupation like work duties, so we think you can do your job even though it is not in any way, shape or form giving any credit to what the job really was.

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Disability Company Reviews

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Showing 8 of 650 Reviews

MetLife

MetLife for disability? Avoid the surgery unless it's life-threatening

Reviewed by Jeff on August 22nd 2024 Verified Policyholder | August 2024 date of disability

The worst company I ever dealt with, never received a call from my claim manager.

Reliance Standard

Short Term Disability Claim/Inconsistent to NO Communication

Reviewed by GaKRN on August 22nd 2024 Verified Policyholder | June 2024 date of disability

When I did call & reach a live person they were kind & helpful. The person assigned to my claim left one phone message & I have not spoken to her since. Information she re... read more >

Unum

Unum Closed My Case Today

Reviewed by Scott C. on July 5th 2024 Verified Policyholder | March 2023 date of disability

Unum will keep you around, if they pay you 100 a month. But as soon as have to pay more than 2700 a month, they will drop you. We will be going to the attorneys office fir... read more >

Hartford

Ran me Around for Months

Reviewed by David on July 5th 2024 Verified Policyholder | January 2024 date of disability

Scammers. Immoral horrible people.

Reply

Sent on July 5th 2024 by Attorney Gregory Dell

David:

It’s horrible that Hartford did that to you.

Prudential

Denied but Not Denied but I am Denied

Reviewed by KDDK on July 5th 2024 Verified Policyholder | August 2022 date of disability

I went out in Aug. 2022 for neck pain. After seeing a neurologist I had to get an ACDF C5-7, it was also determined I had carpal tunnel in my right hand and bulging disk i... read more >

New York Life

Claiming They Are Not Receiving Paperwork

Reviewed by Macey on June 26th 2024 Verified Policyholder | February 2024 date of disability

After suffering from medical issues from my delivery in February, I had to have a colostomy bag placed. Now New York Life is trying to claim my condition was pre-existing ... read more >

Hartford

Truly Horrible and Immoral Company with No Customer Service

Reviewed by William M. on June 26th 2024 Verified Policyholder | June 2020 date of disability

My experiences with Hartford have been nothing short of cruel. They started off by claiming that having Glioblastoma, which has an expected life span of about fifteen mont... read more >

Hartford

Sent my Direct Deposit to a Strangers Bank Acct

Reviewed by Brad on May 2nd 2024 Verified Policyholder | February 2024 date of disability

I went on short term disability and The Hartford put my direct deposit into someone else’s bank account. Somehow they messed up a number or two and they are refusing to ... read more >

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Reviews from Our Clients

S.S.

I am a physician in my 30s who was practicing in my hospital based medical specialty until my Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis began to severely limit my physical ability to work.

My husband and I were obviously in distress at these very unwanted life changes and frankly overwhelmed with the possibility of a long and traumatizing legal battle ahead of us. We knew we were legally entitled to benefits through the separate private individual and employer based ERISA disability insurance policies we had, but even cursory research and discussion with colleagues made it clear that insurance companies will strategize with their own legal teams to find ways to not pay out benefits. We found many before us who had fallen unwittingly into legal pitfalls that prevented them from ultimately obtaining benefits. We realized we needed to seek legal counseling.

We found Dell Disability Firm through their youtube channel where their associates have videos discussing the legal intricacies and latest developments in private disability law. I was impressed by their dedication to the field and reached out through their website to request a free consultation.

We were delighted to hear that Mr. Steven Dell himself would be willing to take our case and felt assured that we would be represented by the best of the best.

We have not been disappointed in our expectation and have, in fact, been consistently very impressed. Steven Dell is clearly both knowledgeable and wise about dealing with these issues but more importantly, has shown kindness and impeccable honesty at each step of the way.

Merlin has demonstrated a very high capacity for organizing and handling the endless myriad of documents and communications between us and the insurance companies. She has also been very compassionate, accessible and forthcoming in dealing with our many anxiety fueled emails and telephone calls to her and we are very grateful for her involvement.

For over 7 months, we have been working closely with Steven Dell and Merlin Bryan from Dell Disability Lawyers as they have guided us through the process of review and initial application for benefits from our two insurance policies (Hartford and Ameritas).

We are happy to announce we just received approval of claim from the Hartford insurance company.

At this time we are still working with this firm as we await the final decisions from Ameritas policy that we are hopeful will have a similar outcome.

As anyone with a chronic and progressive illness can tell you, time becomes a very precious commodity. Through their representation, Dell Disability Associates has allowed us to focus the majority of our time enjoying the time and function I have left while resting assured that our disability case laid in competent and caring hands.

The truth is that no amount of money can make up for what we have lost, but it is a huge comfort to have a team like Dell Disability Lawyers at our sides to help us ensure we will be able to continue to care for ourselves and our families.

We highly recommend Dell Disability Lawyers, Mr. Steven Dell and Ms. Merlin Bryan to handle your disability insurance claim.

Thank you Steven, thank you Merlin!

We will certainly plan on leaving another review for completeness once we have our final decision from Ameritas.

Paula B.

I have been working with Dell Disability Lawyers for the past 5 years concerning my disability as it pertained to my employer. I have been more than pleased with them the entire time. They have always kept me informed of any paperwork needing completed or any changes coming ahead. Nothing has been a surprise. I would recommend them to you to help with your disability case if you’re trying to dip into the policy you’ve been paying for.

Michael M.

I am a physician who has been disabled for over 10 years. During this time I have been represented by Cesar Gavidia and his assistant Danielle Lauria. Their representation on my behalf has allowed me to concentrate on dealing with my disability/disease process and all associated complications and not having to deal with all the things that are necessary in a disability claim. Based on my personal experience from many years of practicing medicine I would consider their work product, insight and effort in the disability claim procedures to be superior. I would recommnend them, which I have done, with my highest level of confidence. In short, you well served with this practice.

Dan P.

I had to retire from my career due to a bad back that restricted me from performing my duties. I had LTD insurance and after a few years of receiving monthly benefits from this insurance company, they notified me that my benefits were terminated stating that I don’t qualify due to my duties not fitting into some “national job description” and a nurse had deemed me eligible to go back to work. Its a crushing feeling to have this told to you over the phone with hardly any information given. Luckily, I came across Dell Disability Lawyers and spoke with Attorney Palamara who calmed me down and stated they would take my case. Within a couple of months my benefits were restored, and I had piece of mind. I cannot thank Attorney Palamara and the staff enough at Dell Disability for their professionalism, no nonsense approach, personal and timely communication and quick ability to litigate my case.

Jen S.

I wanted to thank Mr. Symonds and his legal assistant Sonia for their professionalism, guidance and dedication towards my LTD claim. Going through the denial process on my own was going to get me sicker and knew it was time for help right away. I reached out to Dell Disability Lawyers for assistance and not too long after my call, I was connected with Sonia – Soon after that, I was talking about my case with Mr. Symonds. After a long and tedious process with the LTD insurer, we won the case. The wait can absolutely be lengthy, but in the end, it was all very much worth the fight. Thank you both so much for all that you have done for me! I also want to thank those who assisted in keeping me updated, as needed. Highly recommended for anyone who is going through the brutal process of an LTD denial.

Carl G.

I would like to thank Dell Disability Lawyers for taking care of my case and help me get the insurance coverage that I was rightfully in need of. Specially, I would like to thank Lawyer Alexander Palamara and RIGHT-HAND legal assistant, Sonia Nogueira, who made this process less stressful. They answered all my questions and kept me informed every step of the way.

Don’t get me wrong. They never promised or told me that I was going to win my case, as no one can guarantee that for you. What they did do, was letting me know that they were working hard for me and to keep positive. Something that I recommend everyone to do is to subscribe to their YouTube channel. That will give you an idea on how they operate and why they (for most of their cases) win their cases.

Since I was awarded disability, I am still having surgeries and thanks to Dell Lawyers, I’ve been able to cover all those expenses.

Warm regards to everyone at Dell.

Clarisa B.

I’m so very Grateful and Thankful for the team at Dell. They worked tirelessly to get the best outcome for me. I’m so glad that I found them!!

Carole S.

Exceptional efficient and professional service from Jay Symonds and Sonia Nogueira. They were both so helpful and knowledgeable and navigated me through a very stressful and difficult situation with New York Life.

K. S.

Awesome team. Jay and his team, Sonia and Francesca, truly care. This team is very Professional and quick to respond. Jay always provided answers in detail to my questions. I strongly recommend Jay Symonds.

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