A common misconception among disability claimants is that you must apply for and receive short-term disability benefits to be eligible for long-term disability benefits. That seems logical but rarely is it true in practice. Most short-term and long-term disability plans are administered according to separate plan documents, and those plan […]
On Jan. 26, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit withdrew its prior memorandum disposition in Wit v. United Behavioral Health and replaced it with an entirely new opinion. […]
The ERISA statute, at 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1133, guarantees benefit claimants the right to a “full and fair review” of denied claims. To flesh out the meaning of what constitutes a full and fair review, the U.S. Department of Labor has issued a detailed set of regulations in 29 C.F.R. Sec. 2560.503-1 setting forth minimum standards plan administrators must meet. […]
You may feel relief once your claim for long-term disability (“LTD”) benefits are approved. It is a grueling process, and you finally see some light at the end of the tunnel. […]
When is a life insurance forfeiture ineffective despite the insured’s failure to make a timely premium payment? The answer was provided in Harwick v. AXA Equitable Life Ins. Co., 2020 WL 7698367 (N.D. Ill. December 27, 2020), where the court cited an Illinois statute that embodies a public policy against undue forfeiture of life insurance coverage. […]
Fraud and forgery have always been of concern in commercial transactions. And the internet age has ushed in a whole new level of criminality. […]
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 40% of the adults in the United States have contracted COVID, and nearly one in five of those have experienced symptoms of long COVID. As a recent ruling from a federal court in Washington points out, lawyers get long COVID, too. […]
You worked hard on your long term disability appeal. Hopefully, you followed our LTD claim appeal best practices when preparing your appeal. Maybe you followed our advice and hired an attorney to prepare the appeal for you. Now, the appeal is in the insurer’s hands. Despite your preparation, it is still possible for the appeal to go awry after it is submitted to the disability insurer. […]
Although the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are to be applied uniformly in all civil actions,[1] which would encompass Employee Retirement Income Security Act benefit claims,[2] civil procedure in ERISA litigation often deviates from the norm.[…]
Calculating disability benefits seems like it should be an easy matter. Yet, determining the amount of disability benefits payable can sometimes be quite complicated. Individual disability benefits are usually easier to calculate than group disability benefits. But the devil is often in the details as the following discussion points out.[…]
Once an individual qualifies to receive disability insurance benefits, they are expected to regularly update the insurance company on their condition by completing reports and by providing ongoing certification of their disability by one or more of their treating doctors. […]
The ERISA statute and regulations include guidelines for timing of certain acts that employers need to perform, as well as deadlines for employees. […]