Disability Insurance Lawsuit Stories

A recent article posted by CNN Health addresses the lack of support women who suffer from fibromyalgia can face personally, professionally and even from their own physicians as they try to cope with this debilitating and often misunderstood disease.Dell Disability Lawyers have represented numerous long term disability claimants that have been unable to work as a result of suffering from fibromyalgia.Th...

In a recent long term disability insurance case against Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Company (Hartford), Glenn Pauley alleged that Hartford wrongfully denied his long-term disability benefits. This case is a classic example of the frequent tactic used by Hartford to deny long term disability claims. On numerous Hartford claim denials we have seen Hartford draft undisclosed one-sided letters to the trea...

In a recent Federal Court decision in favor of First Unum, the Court validated the right of a long-term disability insurance plans to rely upon functional capacity evaluations (FCE) as a basis for determining whether or not the claimant has the right to continue receiving disability insurance benefits. In VanWright v. First Unum, VanWright's long-term disability attorney pointed to another case, Alfano v. Unum...

This case is an example of how a diagnosis of a disabling condition such as multiple sclerosis ("MS") does not always mean the claimant is disabled by the medical condition. In this case, while the claimant had MS, the disabling condition was depression and not MS. Unfortunately, the Reliance Standard disability policy limited benefits to 24 months for a mental nervous disorder.Igor Gunn participated in th...

The language of a long term disability insurance plan is crucial when status of a totally disabled person is in question. The language needs to be considered very carefully. A case heard in the U.S. District Court's Eastern Division of Kentucky, central Division in Lexington gives us another opportunity to look at how a company such as CIGNA can rely on medical information from their own doctors and fail to ex...

Much as disability attorneys would like the Courts to allow them to request production of discovery, this isn't something that can be assumed as a right. This is especially true in a situation where the attorney has not proven that a procedural defect has occurred.The case which Cathleen Myers filed in U.S. District court, Eastern Division, Tennessee against the Prudential Insurance Company of America(Prud...

Over 14 years, Kathleen M. Hackett worked her way up through the ranks at Mileage Plus Inc. (MPI) a Rapid City, South Dakota business. When she finally left the company's employ for disability reasons, she had worked her way to Customer Service Supervisor.She was covered by disability insurance offered by Standard Insurance Company (Standard). On September 28, 2002, she was disabled due to the side effects...

When New York Life terminated Dale W. Gordon's long term disabilities benefits in June 1, 2006, Gordon sought the help of a disability attorney to get his status of disabled person back. The Court issued its judgment on the matter almost 1-1/2 years after Gordon's disability attorney first filed legal action against New York Life.As is typical of many claims filed under the Employer Retirement Income Secur...

Can a long-term disability plan adhere to its denial decision without any supportive evidence? Can a long-term disability plan neglect evidence in support of a participant claim? If a disability plan does these things, what kind of evidence will a disability attorney look for before pursuing a lawsuit against the disability insurance plan? Answers to all these questions may be found in the case of Dale W Gordo...

The case of William MacNally v. Life Insurance Company of North America (LINA / CIGNA) is an interesting one. In this case LINA argued that despite the fact that it had found MacNally disabled from his own occupation, he did not qualify for the life insurance premium waiver under his policy because he was not disabled from "any occupation."Had CIGNA / LINA violated the terms of its life-insurance policy?...

MacNally v. LINA (CIGNA) highlights the complications that can occur when a person has both a disability and life insurance policy with the same insurance company. The terms of the policies can vary slightly. In this case, LINA claimed that the provisions under the life insurance policy held by William MacNally were different from the provisions under his long-term disability plan. Even though the life insuran...

When Douglas Juszynski brought his long term disability insurance lawsuit against Life Insurance Company of North American (LINA / CIGNA) before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, he was exercising his rights under ERISA to compel CIGNA to reinstate his long term disability benefits. This case, heard in March 2008, answers the question of whether a disability insur...

It is not often we say positive things about disability insurance companies, but Guardian Insurance Company and Berkshire Life Insurance Company are two companies that usually try to do the right thing for their policy holders. Guardian has been in existence since 1860 and has over 5,000 employees. In 2001 Berkshire Life merged with Guardian. Berkshire Life sell...

Once again we look at one of those cases that prove how important it can be to appeal the decision of a District Court. Suzanne Lee had been an employee of BellSouth for almost 10 years. She was diagnosed with chronic pain in October 2003 after she was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in her back. She continued to work until January 18, 2005, when her pain became so severe that she could no longer sit ...

When Suzanne Lee first had to miss work on January 18, 2005 for chronic back pain, she had been a manager at BellSouth for almost 10 years. She applied for short-term disability benefits under the BellSouth Short-term Disability Plan she participated in. If Broadspire Services, Inc., the company BellSouth hired to administer its health care trust and disability benefit plans, had approved her application, her ...

A sedentary position is no guarantee that an employee will not need to take advantage of the disability insurance plan offered by his or her employer, as the story of Bud Minton demonstrates. He worked as a graphics designer for Deloitte and Touche. The job involved long hours at the computer, which after nine years began to take its toll. The pain in his arms, upper back and neck became so severe that he took...

When Steven Alfano won his claim against CIGNA Life Insurance Company, it was a clear victory. While we have discussed attorney's fees in connection with other ERISA victories, this application is worth discussing because the Court has explained its reasons for ordering CIGNA to compensate Alfano for these costs so clearly. This is also another time when the disability attorney representing Alfano did everythi...

Steven Alfano was a wage and salary manager when he was injured in a car accident in May 1996. Though he returned to work after he recovered from his acute injuries, he still suffered from back pain and residual weakness in his left leg. Because of this he continued to see Dr. Michael Alexiades, an orthopedic surgeon.His back condition got worse over time. By May 2000, it became apparent that he would not ...

Unfortunately, the experience of this particular long term disability claimant is not an unusual handling of a disability claim by CIGNA. When a disability insurance company issues a long-term disability policy, it provides the participant with definitions of what it considers a disability. These disability plans will vary from company to company. The one we will be looking at here involves CIGNA Life Insuranc...

Prudential Insurance Company has more than 42,000 employees, revenues in excess of $32 billion and is one of the largest group / ERISA disability insurance companies in the world. Our law firm has an extensive history of handling disability insurance claims against Prudential in courts across the country.In this episode disability insurance attorneys Gregory Dell, Stephen Jessup and Cesar Gavidia of Dell D...