The lesson taught by Okuno v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 2016 WL 4655741 (6th Cir. September 7, 2016), is that the answer to the question posed by the title of this blog is a resounding NO. The case involved a former art director for a clothing company who became disabled on account of Crohn’s […]
On July 27, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit handed down a decision in the case of Berg v. New York Life Ins. Co. reversing an adverse judgment in the district court against DeBofsky Law’s client, Eric Berg. The court of appeals found in Berg’s favor on two significant issues: First, […]
Short-term and long-term disability plans are supposed to provide workers and professionals with coverage to make ends meet when a serious medical impairment or injury takes the person away from work. Not everybody participates in these insurance plans. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says the roughly 39 percent of people working in private […]
A recent ruling from a federal court in Arizona offers a lesson on the consequences of discovery abuse: The court imposed severe sanctions on an insurer for wrongfully withholding documents requested in discovery. The case of Sell v. Country Life Insurance Co., 2016 WL 3179461 (D. Ariz., June 1, 2016), involved a claim for disability […]
Claims for employee benefits brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act are subject to very strict rules regarding time limits for deciding claims. However, neither the ERISA statute, nor the claim regulations found at 29 C.F.R. Section 2560.503-1 prescribe specific penalties for violating the rules.
DeBofsky, Sherman & Casciari attorneys Mark DeBofsky and Martina Sherman recently won the case of Wonsowski v. United of Omaha Life Ins. Co., 2016 WL 3088141 (N.D. Ill. June 2, 2016) following a bench trial before Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown in the federal court in Chicago. The case involved Shellie Wonsowski, who had worked […]