A US District Court Judge recently granted a motion filed by SMDA granting LTD benefits to one of our clients. The Court found that the third party administrator had abused its discretion in recommending a denial of benefits. The Court found that the client’s serious back problems along with the…
SMDA partner, Patrick Derkacz, recently recovered $1.2 million dollars on behalf of his seriously injured clients. Mr. Derkacz convinced State Farm to pay this significant settlement the day after taking the deposition of the at-fault driver who offered testimony that he was not responsible for causing this rear end accident. …
Anyone familiar with LTD Insurance claims and ERISA knows that you must first exhaust your administrative remedies before filing suit. In other words, you have to try and convince the LTD insurer to reverse its decision to deny the claim for benefits. While this may seem like an difficult task…
SMDA recently convinced Cigna to overturn a claims denial decision by filing a comprehensive administrative appeal of the LTD claims denial decision. SMDA was hired by a client who worked for Norwegian Cruise Lines who developed significant back problems. His back problems became so severe that he was put off…
While this blog is normally devoted to all things Long Term Disability, I wanted to give a shout out to my legal partner, Phil Serafini who obtained an outstanding result in a automobile no-fault case. SMDA was contacted by the mother of a minor who was involved in a serious…
A panel of the 6th Circuit Court of appeals recently overturned Aetna Life Insurance Company’s decision denying LTD benefits to one of our client’s. In Mckenna v Aetna Life Insurance Co. the court found that Aetna improperly rejected our client’s claim for benefits. In sum, although it is Appellant’s burden…
In a case mentioned previously on this Blog, a Long Term Disability Insurer (MetLife) reversed its claims denial decision upon remand from Federal Court. The client last worked in 2009 and can expect more than five years of past due benefits. This is an unusual circumstance for a case with…
While this Blog is usually devoted to issues involving LTD claims and cases, I felt I needed to go off topic for a minute. The Michigan Supreme Court issued a decision this past week in a case where a disabled young man drowned in a public swimming pool. Investigation revealed…
In Rochow v. Life Ins. Co. of N. Am., 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 3532 (6th Cir. 2015), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (the Court) en banc overturned a previous decision of a 3 judge panel that had allowed plaintiff’s claim for the disgorgement of profits earned by the disability…
The US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan recently determined that LTD Insurer-MetLife wrongfully denied a claimant’s request for LTD benefits. SMDA was retained by the claimant after her administrative remedies had been exhausted and suit had been filed. The client had been employed as an Audit Manager…