Disability Insurance Lawsuit Stories

In the case of Amy Wright v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company (Reliance), Plaintiff was the vice-president of health information services at Integrity Health Care when she stopped working on August 7, 2017. She brought claims for benefits under an LTD insurance policy and a waiver of premiums under a life insurance policy.In order to be approved for LTD benefits, Plaintiff ...

This Unum lawsuit and appeal in federal court is a great victory for all Unum disability claimants. This case supports all claimants that are disabled and claim that they cannot return to work as the requirements of their job will aggravate their symptoms and make them unable to work.Mark was a personal injury litigation attorney, when he began struggling with symptoms of...

The signing of a severance package when leaving a job is not uncommon, but you may be signing away your right to pursue either a short or long term disability insurance claim. A recent lawsuit decision from the Federal Court in New York is a sad result for a SunLife policy holder that waived her right to challenge a SunLife disability benefit denial. This claim ...

In the recent case of Ferrin v. Aetna Life Ins. Co. a federal judge from the Northern District of Illinois determined that Aetna improperly terminated Ferrin’s claim for long term disability benefits and ordered Aetna to reinstate Ferrin’s claim and pay all past due benefits with interest. Prior to filing for long term disability Ferrin was an employee of Southwest Airlines. In 2008, while at work, she suf...

In ERISA cases filed in a district court asking for judicial review of a plan administrator's denial of benefits, the court is generally limited to considering only the administrative record that was before the plan administrator. The case of Robert Stallings v. The Proctor & Gamble Disability, Committee, et al., is an example of how plaintiffs with cases filed in a District Court that is under the jurisdi...

Companion Life tried to play games and deny disability insurance benefits, but thankfully a New Mexico Federal Judge made them pay disability benefits and attorney fees. The Plaintiff, Mr. Paul Chandhok, was recently awarded disability benefits in a decision by The United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, in a case decided on August 13, 2021. What makes this decision important for plaintif...

In Darren Mickell v. Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Players Retirement Plan (Plan), Mickell spent nine years in the NFL as a defensive end. He was repeatedly subjected to high speed contact hits which caused multiple orthopedic injuries to his “back, ribs, shoulders, arms, hands, knees, hips, legs, and feet." He had multiple orthopedic surgeries. Mickell also sustained multiple blows to his head t...

In Anne Ehlert v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife), Ehlert was a consulting pension actuary for pension plans at Towers Watson. Her first day of work with Towers was September 8, 2003. Her last day of work was December 23, 2015. In August 2016, she applied for long-term disability (LTD) benefits under her employer’s disability insurance benefit plan which was administered by MetLife.In thi...

The case of Jose Chavez v. Standard Insurance Company has quite a history with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. It began in September 2016 when Standard first began paying long-term disability benefits to Chavez. He had several operations on his wrist and was no longer able to perform the duties of his own occupation.Standard terminated his ben...

In Darren Cohen v. Aetna Life Insurance Company [Aetna], Plaintiff was employed by STEC, Inc. as a Computer Systems Engineer where he worked on his computer for 6-8 hours a day. STEC, Inc. is a computer data storage technology company.Plaintiff was injured while driving a Go-Kart at an employer-sponsored event. He suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord compression. He had pre-exi...

In Tisha Entz v. Standard Insurance Company, Plaintiff Entz was a classroom teacher in Victorville, California from 1997 until she became too ill to work following the end of the 2014-2015 school year on June 10, 2015. She applied for her disability insurance benefit provided by her employer. She alleged in her claim for disability insurance benefits that her first day off work should be August ...

In Nancy Devries v. Aetna Life Insurance Company (Aetna) plaintiff worked as First American as a Senior Business Analyst until August 19, 2016. On that day, she stopped working. A few days later, she filed a claim for short term disability (STD) benefits.Plaintiff was under continuous care of her primary care physician, an immunologist, and a physician’s assistant (PA). She had freque...

In Jody Rizzo v. First Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company, plaintiff’s late husband, Angelo Rizzo, participated in a group life insurance policy provided as a benefit by his employer, Barnes & Noble, where he was employed as an assistant store manager. The policy was issued by Reliance Standard. On about November 12, 2012, Mr. Rizzo stopped working due to his multiple medical problems. He...

In Tanza Hadd v. Aetna Life Insurance Company, Plaintiff Hadd, was employed by UPS as an Operations Supervisor/Manager, also known as a Hub Supervisor. The job was classified as “heavy” and involved moving packages of up to 150 pounds. The working environment was filled with dust and dirt and kept at various temperatures. Plaintiff stopped working in April 2013.Plaintiff w...

In Claire Refaey v. Aetna Life Insurance Company, in late September 2015, Plaintiff suffered from a viral disease causing quite a few medical symptoms including nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, weakness in her extremities, hypotension, and inability to walk. She was hospitalized and treated symptomatically. She was released from the hospital on October 2, 2015 and referred for ou...

BackgroundIn Bayer v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America, C.A. No. 18-9702 (E.D. LA 2020), Plaintiff began working as a senior property manager for Sealy Operating III, Inc., in September 2014. According to Sealy’s written job description, Plaintiff’s job duties included maintaining properties in good order and condition by contracting and scheduling necessary repairs and maintenance, con...

Aetna’s Rationale for DenialIn Patterson v. Aetna Life Insurance Company, C.A. No. 17-3566 (3rd Cir. 2019) through his employer, First Consulting Group, Inc. (“FCG”), is a pharmaceutical consulting firm, Patterson became covered by a long-term disability policy underwritten by Aetna. Patterson’s occupation with FCG was characterized as “Director, Busin...

In Roberts v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., C.A. No. 6:18-cv-725-TMC (D. S.C. Sept. 3, 2019), Plaintiff worked for IBM for more than eighteen (18) years when he stopped working in September 2010 due to intractable migraine headaches and cervical pain. He filed claims for Social Security (“SS”) disability benefits and short term disability (STD) benefits with MetLife, which is the claims adminis...

In August of 2019, the next of kin for a man currently incarcerated in Florida State Prison reached out to our firm as his relative had been denied receipt of continued long term disability benefits. As it turns out, the imprisoned individual had been receiving Long Term Disability (LTD) Insurance Benefits since October 7, 1994 from Aetna and later Hartford (as Hartford purchased Aetna’s Group Life and Disab...

In Teresa Outward v. Eaton Corp. Disability Plan for U.S. Employees (Eaton), Plaintiff, who had a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, began her employment with the Eaton Corporation in 2001 as a medium voltage switch program manager. Through the years, she received promotions and by 2012, her position was that of a corporate marketing manager.In late 2011, Plaintiff suffered a m...