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 should be applied.
Judge Lawson ruled in Price v Hartford (09-14171):
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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 Provide the Protection They Promise?” will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 28 in Room 215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
At the hearing, Baucus will focus on whether private-sector long-term insurance claims are being unfairly denied or terminated by the companies providing long-term disability insurance covered under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The hearing will also examine how these private insurance companies have handled workers’ appeals of denials and terminations. Baucus will raise questions about possible improvements that can be made to ensure claimants and beneficiaries of long-term disability insurance plans covered under ERISA are treated fairly.
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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) confirmed that Defendant had improperly withheld payment of LTD benefits during the Plan’s “own occupation” period despite the fact that Defendant had obtained numerous “paper reviews” by its own physicians. The Court ordered Defendant to pay all of the overdue benefits and ordered Defendant to reconsider its decision under the “any occupation” definition of disability.
This case demonstrates the critical importance of determining the correct standard of review.
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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 the part of Hartford and the doctors it hired to review the records. Hartford objected and refused to answer a single question. We filed a motion to compel which the Court granted with one small exception.
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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 trends and caselaw in this niche area of practice, not to mention the killer crabcakes at Legal Seafood on the edge of Boston Harbor.
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 a new subdivision, adjacent to some power lines. As the crane lowered one of the forms onto the foundation, it contacted a power line. A jolt of electric current flowed through the crane and down the chain to the form and the metal “whaler” plaintiff was using to control the form from the ground. Plaintiff was knocked unconscious and his hands and feet were severely burned, requiring skin grafts.
Justice Young reversed the Court of Appeals decision and threw out Randy’s case. Why? Because “The only employees exposed to the risk of electrocution were two to six employees of one subcontractor, including the plaintiff, and therefore there was not a high degree of risk to a significant number of workers.” I guess in Justice Young’s world since only 6 people were at risk of electrocution and only one guy actually got electrocuted its no big deal. I suspect that Randy Alderman and his family might disagree.
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 spends on advertising it is a dollar that it cannot spend to pay claims.
A recent ranking of insurance companies identified a number of familiar names as the worst including several Long Term Disability Insurers. While my experience is strictly unscientific, I have seen a number of these same insurers consistently denying meritorious claims. I have filed many ERISA claims and lawsuits to reverse these denials.
So, be careful who you get your LTD insurance from. There is probably a reason that one company’s policy is less expensive. If meritorious claims are denied, the company can afford to accept a lower premium rate. Here are the top ten (or bottom ten) companies based on claims denied rankings:
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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 hired our firm to pursue a claim against the at-fault driver when he was unable to return to work due to a serious neck injury (due to whiplash).
SMDA filed a lawsuit against the trucking company in the Wayne County Circuit Court. Despite being served with the complaint by the local sheriff, the trucking comapny failed to appear in the case and was defaulted. Despite receiving notice of the default, the Trucking company again failed to appear in the case and a default judgment ($942,000) was entered by the Court.
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Long Term Disability Insurance Lawyer Blog
