Who We Help
Our disability insurance lawyers help any individual that is seeking short or long term disability insurance benefits from an insurance company. We have helped thousands of disability insurance claimants nationwide with monthly disability benefits ranging from $500 to $90,000 a month. With more than 40 years of disability insurance experience we have helped individuals in almost every occupation and we are familiar with the disability income policies offered by every disability insurance company. We have represented employees from the largest companies in the world and regularly represent business professionals such as doctors, lawyers, consultants, dentist, business owners, veterinarians, executives, accountants, nurses, engineers, pharmacist, analyst, IT pros, managers, pilots, professional athletes, financial advisors, teachers, professors, police officers, sales reps, and government employees. We represent clients nationwide and we encourage you to contact us for a free immediate phone consultation with one of our disability insurance attorneys.
Why Do Disability Companies Ignore Your Job Duties?
Disability insurance companies are trained to look for reasons to deny a claim rather than support claim approval. In a disability insurance claim the definition of "disability" in your disability income policy defines the duties you must be unable to perform in order to qualify for monthly benefits. Most disability policies contain language that in order to get paid benefits you must satisfy either an "own occupation" or "any occupation" definition of disability. Disability insurance companies sell different types of disability income policies and the definition of disability varies in each policy. The challenge in every disability insurance claim is that disability companies manipulatively focus on the generic physical demand classification of your occupation and ignore how your job is actually performed for your employer. The disability company will describe your job generally as one of five physical strength classifications:
S - Sedentary Work
L - Light Work
M - Medium Work
H - Heavy Work
V - Very Heavy Work
The majority of jobs have physical strength requirements of "Sedentary" and disability claim examiners are trained to ignore the mental requirements of your job and the way in which you perform the job for your employer. For example, if you are a person with a job that requires you to use a computer for more than 4 hours a day, then the disability company will determine that if you can sit in a chair for more than four hours a day then you should be able to do your job. The disability carrier will not consider how your pain and discomfort prevents you from focusing and being able to complete your daily job duties. If a job required nothing more than sitting, then a 16 year old with no education or work experience would be able to do every sedentary job as long as he or she could sit for more than 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. When people apply for jobs, the job description requires significantly more than the general definition of "sedentary" listed above.
Tips For Describing Your Occupational Duties
Your disability company's failure to properly evaluate your occupational duties is a technique that they have been using since the 1930's. We work with our clients to present the disability company with very extensive descriptions of their occupational duties. Most employers have job descriptions and we often find that the employer provided descriptions do not accurately describer the material duties that you perform each day. In order to fully describe how our client performed his or her job we have done the following: request copy of our client's daily calendar, obtain statements from co-workers and past supervisors, provide copies of sample work that has been completed by our client, provide a job description from another person with the same job, retain a vocational expert to interview you and describe the job in great detail, request a recorded interview with the disability company and perform industry specific research to make the disability insurance company understand the demands of your job. A disability company cannot reasonably evaluate your claim by simply relying on a generic physical job classification.
Inability to Perform Your Job Duties May Not Qualify You For Disability Benefits
It's important that you understand how "disability" is defined in your policy and if the definition of disability will change after a certain period of time. Every word in your policy definition of disability has specific meaning that can impact your eligibility. Our disability lawyers are available to provide you with a free review of your disability insurance policy. Let's take a look below at some of the most common definitions of "disability".
Own Occupation Disability
Any Occupation Disability
Total And Residual Disability
It is imperative to always have a strong understanding of the definition of disability in your policy. We constantly work with our clients to make sure that their medical records contain the appropriate support to satisfy the appropriate definition of disability. The number one reason for denial is that the medical records don't contain sufficient information to the support the claim. It is essential that your treating doctors understand your definition of disability so that your medical records can be properly documented. We work with our clients and the doctors to help make sure your records contain the required information. We also like to make sure that your doctor discusses your occupational duties with you. The insurance companies can attempt to call your doctors at anytime and if your doctor does not understand why you cannot perform your job, then the chances of getting disability benefits is very slim. We recommend that your doctor never speak to the insurance company without first speaking to you. We will educate you and your doctor so that the proper information can be supplied to your disability company. We always offer a free phone consultation and we welcome you to contact us at any stage of your disability benefit claim to learn how we can assist you.
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