Short & Long Term Disability Cases We’ve Won for Our Clients in California

A surgical technician at a large hospital became disabled after chronic struggles with his left knee and lumbar spine pain. After leaving his job, he applied for Long Term Disability benefits and was initially paid for a few months. Suddenly and without warning, Metlife denied ongoing benefits. The man was shocked because his job required him to be on his feet for several hours at a time during surgeries and he wasn’t able to stand for more than a few minutes.

He hired Fields Law to fight this wrongful denial of benefits. Our lawyers put together an appeal with several volumes of medical evidence and a strong report from our client’s new doctor outlining his severe limitations and inability to work. We also argued that Metlife failed to consider the medical conditions in combination. After investigation, Metlife agreed our client was disabled and reinstated his benefits. He was so happy with the representation he received that he referred a friend to Fields Law Firm.

A California woman was forced to leave work after her pregnancy had turned high risk. Unfortunately, she had an extensive history with post-traumatic stress disorder and, after leaving work, soon developed severe complications with depression and anxiety. She applied for benefits from her Long Term Disability carrier. However, the insurer said they needed time to evaluate her claim since it might have fallen into a pre-existing condition exclusion. Liberty Mutual then began sending the woman letter after letter, demanding all kinds of different information. Eventually, the insurer sent her a denial letter. In their denial, Liberty Mutual claimed she failed to meet her policy’s definition of disability because her medical records didn’t support restrictions and/or limitations.

Unsure of what to do next, she contacted Fields Law. The Fields Law team began gathering the information Liberty Mutual had demanded, and the attorneys started forming narrow arguments to refute the insurer’s claims. The Fields Law attorneys appealed Liberty Mutual’s decision, and the prior denial decision was overturned and our client was awarded her benefits.

A Nuclear Medical Technologist from California suffered from extreme muscle weakness that could turn into a much more serious disease. She worked through it until her condition prevented her from doing almost anything. Three minutes on a seated stepping machine prevented her from walking for the two days following. She attempted physical therapy to try to fix her situation without any luck. She was taken out of work by her doctors and applied for Long Term Disability benefits through her employer, but her claim was denied. She could not understand how they did not see that she was disabled. She reached out to the Fields Law team for help through this complicated process.

The Fields Law team could not believe that the insurer denied this claim and immediately took on the case. Our attorneys submitted an appeal that pointed to all the ways in which our client was disabled, from medical records to the lack of being able to perform several activities of daily living. Our attorneys also obtained narrative reports from our client’s doctors to include in the appeal that supported disability. We also referenced that the Social Security Administration had deemed our client disabled and granted her Social Security Disability benefits. Metlife did not even conduct their own independent medical examination of our client before denying her benefits. Our client can no longer enjoy her life, let alone work, and the only people that could not see that was her Long Term Disability insurance provider. Following the appeal, Metlife finally accepted that our client was disabled and granted her ongoing Long Term Disability benefits. Our client was so grateful for the work of the entire Fields Law team.