Our Resolved Disability Insurance Claims

Our client, a general dentist, purchased a long-term disability policy from Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America. The policy defined "disability" as the inability to perform the substantial and material duties of his regular occupation. Our client maintained a solo dental practice since 1995. After several years of practice, Dr. Q began experiencing back pain which made it difficult for him to bend over...

Our client, a chiropractor, suffered from severe bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome, as a result of a traffic accident. Our client applied for disability insurance benefits under the terms of his contract. His disability insurance contract defined total disability for the first 24 months as the inability to perform the substantial and material duties of his occupation as a chiropractor. After 24 months the defin...

Our client, a chiropractor, was severely injured as a result of a mountain bike accident, which left him temporarily paralyzed. While he was only temporarily paralyzed, this accident has left him with permanent spinal cord and lower back injuries that render him unable to work as a chiropractor. The days that he once spent running from room to room, greeting people, and adjusting and manipulating his patients ...

Prior to leaving his employment with a local hospital, our client, an internal medicine doctor sought our legal services to evaluate his group long-term disability policy and advise him as to whether he was eligible for long-term disability. Our client was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease approximately 5 years prior to considering filing for disability.Our client wanted to continue working but he felt th...

Our client, an accounting manager for twenty-three years, suffered a debilitating stroke that left the entire left side of his body paralyzed. Coupled with the affects of the stroke, he also suffered from severe discongenic disease. Unable to work, he applied for and received Social Security Disability benefits from the Social Security Administration ("SSA") after meeting the SSA's very strict definition of "d...

Dell Disability Lawyers was able to successfully procure a settlement for a dentist whose disability benefits from UNUM Provident were terminated after 7 months of treatment and chemotherapy for pancreatic carcinoma. UNUM Provident based its denial on the fact that our client returned to work, in a very limited capacity, after the carcinoma appeared to be contained and under control. However, while our client ...

Dr. C, a dentist, came to Dell Disability Lawyers in 2006 seeking assistance in submitting applications for long-term disability benefits. In 1999, Dr. C began noticing a slight tremor in his right hand while writing and at times while holding a dental instrument. He immediately sought care from a neurologist, who after examining Dr. C, determined that the tremor was likely stress and anxiety related. Dr. C co...

Our Client, a veterinarian, suffering from fibromyalgia was was receiving long-term disability benefits for 9 years, when his disability carrier decided to stop paying him. Not only did his carrier decide to stop paying, but they sued him in Federal Court for 9 months of back benefits that they paid under a reservaton of rights.In response to the Carriers unreasonable actions, we filed a counter-suit for b...

Our client, an ENT doctor injured his finger during an automobile accident. As result of the injury to his finger our client was no longer able to perform a majority of the surgeries that he was once able to do. Our client had both a personal disability policy and a business overhead policy. Our client continued to work as an ENT, but his partner handled all of the surgeries that our client was once able to pe...

A former state attorney, responsible for prosecuting and trying criminal cases, hired Dell Disability Lawyers prior to filing her application for total disability benefits with Equitable Life Assurance Company. We assisted her as she completed the numerous applications for benefits, were present during her interview with an Equitable representative, and helped her to obtain the substantial amounts of informati...

Our client suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and applied for long-term disability insurance benefits under the terms of his group disability policy. His insurance carrier denied his claim, asserting that because he took anti-depressant medication and was also diagnosed with a personality disorder within the three months prior to obtaining insurance coverage, his condition was pre-existing.After ...

Our client was an executive assistant for a leasing company who became disabled after developing fibromyalgia. In April 2007, she filed a claim with USAA Life, with whom she had taken out a personal long-term disability policy in 1995.Our client's occupation as an executive assistant required her to spend long hours in front of a computer. However, her job required her to be able to multi-task and perform ...

Attorneys Dell and Gavidia filed suit against Federal Express ("FedEx") on behalf of their client, Richard Bilheimer, in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, alleging that their client's former employer Federal Express had breached the terms and conditions of the Federal Express Short-term Disability Plan by denying Mr. Bilheimer's claim for disability benefits. Moreover, FedEx prevented Mr. Bilheimer from applyin...

Prior to September 11, 2001 our client, Mr. B, was a government securities repo trader. His office was located on the 26th Floor of Tower 1 of the World Trade Center. On the morning of September 11, 2001, Mr. B reported to work at his brokerage firm and started his day buying and selling government securities for his commercial clients, institutions such as Bank of Tokyo and Lehman Brothers. At around 8:45 a.m...

Dell Disability Lawyers successfully resolved a long-term disability claim for a former floor trader on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange ("CBOE"). In July 1998, Mr. T underwent bilateral eye surgery to correct vision loss which was preventing Mr. T from accurately reading the monitors in his trading pit, a necessary skill in Mr. T's profession. Despite undergoing corrective eye surgery and hoping to retur...

Attorney Gregory Dell, of Dell Disability Lawyers, successfully negotiated a lump-sum buyout of a long-term disability policy for a 35 year old former account executive at XO Communications.The claimant had been collecting long-term disability since 2002 as a result of a condition that causes severe headaches and occasional seizures. The long-term disability policy was issued by the Hartford Life and Accid...

Our client, a radiologist and partner of a successful Florida medical group began experiencing significant burning tongue and mouth pain following a dental procedure. Complicating matters further, he also suffered from severe back pain from several disk herniations and degenerative disk disease. The burning tongue and mouth pain was severely distracting, to the extent that it impaired his ability to focus, con...

Our client, a teaching assistant with Multiple Sclerosis, was denied benefits under her long-term disability policy from Hartford provided by her employer, the Broward County Florida School Board. Following her denial of benefits, our client retained Dell Disability Lawyers to appeal the denial of her benefits. Her policy stated that she would qualify for long-term disability benefits if she was "continuously ...

Our client was a successful, independent financial advisor who owned her own business. On December 21, 2008, while stopped at a red light, her car was struck from the rear by a cement mixer. Within days of the accident she was beginning to experience pain in her neck and lower back. MRI reports indicated multiple herniations of her cervical and lumbar spine. Unable to return to her office for little more than ...

Our client, a financial advisor, was first diagnosed with fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) in 2002. FSHD is a neuromuscular disease which causes progressive skeletal muscle loss and weakness, defects in the biochemical, physical and structural components of muscle and the death of muscle cells and tissue. FSHD is a severely disabling condition and is the second most prevalent muscular dystrophy a...