Another Eastern District of Michigan federal court recently granted my motion for discovery in a long term disability insurance ERISA case without requiring a predicate showing. This time the Court specifically decided that there was no requirement that a predicate showing be made. Instead, the federal rules generally governing discovery…
Here is a link to the Senate Hearing on Long Term Disability Insurance. Anyone who has a claim or may become disabled should watch this for a brief glimpse into the difficulties associated with obtaining Long Term Disability Benefits.
Senior United States District Court Judge William Acker offered his views on ERISA LTD cases to the Senate. Follow this link to read his views. The Judge has a number of interesting insights including the overwhelming difficulty faced by most LTD claimaints that is simply built into the system.
As reported by Scott Mulhauser/Erin Shields on the insurancenewsnet.com website. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will convene a hearing on Tuesday to examine the difficulties workers face in securing benefits they are entitled to from private long-term disability insurance plans. The hearing, entitled “Do Private Long-Term Disability Policies…
In a recent ERISA Long Term Disability case, the Court granted Plaintiff’s Motion for summary judgment and ordered Defendant to pay all of Plaintiff’s overdue benefits during the “own occupation” period. In _____________ v The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company LTD Plan, the Honorable George Caram Steeh (E.D. Michigan)…
The Eastern District of Michigan federal court recently granted my motion for discovery in a long term disability insurance ERISA case without requiring a predicate showing. In Back v Hartford I had submitted a limited number of questions to Hartford Insurance Company to try and investigate any potential bias on…
SMDA Partner, Patrick Derkacz, attended the 13th ACI National Advanced Forum on Litigating Disability Insurance claims held in historic Boston last week. This seminar was two solid days of presentations and discussions with the countries leading Disability Insurance Litigation attorneys. It was a great opportunity to discuss the latest developing…
Justice Robert Young is up for re-election in November. Each and every worker in the State of Michigan should remember his decision in the recent Alderman v. J.C. Development Communities case. On October 9, 2006, Randy Alderman was part of a crew of six men working on a homesite in…
Just like other forms of insurance , your Long Term Disability Insurance is only as good as the Company providing it and the policy they sell. Every time I see a “Good Hands” commercial or a “like a good neighbor” commercial I think that for every dollar an insurance company…
In addition to our work on Long Term Disability cases, Serafini, Michalowski, Derkacz & Associates (SMDA) also handles personal injury cases. This is the story of one such case. Our client, James Hawthorne was rear ended by a semi-truck owned and operated by a Kentucky based Trucking company. Mr. Hawthorne…