Guardian
Guardian just plain refused to settle
I was protected for disability loss of income by Guardian. In addition, I purchased a separate excess policy for additional monthly limits through Unum.I had 2 occurrences affecting my health. The first was November, 1995, a heart irregular rhythm. I was out of work for over 6 months, and not able to do any full time type work for over 18 months. After negotiations, I reached a settlement with both Guardian and Unum. All seemed well until January, 1998 when I had a stroke at work. Again, I was in the hospital for about a week and needed almost 6 months of rehab, and rest. I tried again to return to full time but found the medications and conditions caused me to cut back. I filed with both carriers for partial disability and settled the claim with Unum. Guardian rejected the claim as I was not working a 30 hour work week. I explained and sent them information of applying to Social Security Disability. After SSDI review, my case was approved for payment in 2006. So, Unum agreed to settle, and Social Security agreed to settle. Only Guardian gave this very lame reason for not settling. The delays of going back and forth with Guardian allowed them to bring in the ERISA laws and not the time to reach a settlement. Now we are almost into 2012, and I had to sell my investments to live and to pay for medications, until the SSDI started. I still believe Guardian should offer a settlement on my case, and I was really willing to work this out with them, but they just plain refused. As in my case with Unum, they terminated my partial disability claim, but when the “class action suit” and verdict came down on them, they had to re-open my case and we eventually settled. I needed an ERISA lawyer, disability lawyer, and my health did not allow me to continue under those stresses. Today I thought I should get an opinion, and to see if many others have had the same experience I have had with Guardian. Again, Unum tried to cancel off paying disabled people and I can only assume Guardian tried the same plan.
Reply
I reviewed your previous comment from Christmas 2011. Based on the fact pattern as presented, it would seem your claim for benefits with Guardian was denied in 2006. If your policy was in fact an ERISA based policy as you have indicated there stands a greater than likely chance that any applicable statute of limitations may have run. Typically, ERISA governed disability policies provide a three year statute of limitations to file a lawsuit. If that is the case with the policy you had, then that time frame may have expired some time in 2009. In that event there would have most likely be nothing any attorney could have done in 2011 or today.
