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

An admission clerk from Michigan was suffering from fibromyalgia and chronic back pain. She was taken off work by her treating doctors and she applied for Long Term Disability benefits through her employer’s disability plan. The insurance company denied her claim alleging our client’s occupation required only minimal lifting and the ability to sit most of the day with occasional standing.

After being denied, she turned to Fields Law Firm for help. We filed an appeal on her behalf pointing out that the insurer has improperly rated our client’s occupation as sedentary when it required a greater physical functional ability, and that the insurer had failed to properly consider and credit the opinions of the treating doctors. The insurer refused to change its position and we filed a lawsuit on our client’s behalf. After initiating the lawsuit, our team was able to negotiate a settlement resolving this claim without our client having to go to court.

Not long after getting his dream job as the director of information technology with a large international business, the IT Specialist was involved in a car-on-motorcycle collision, which resulted in him striking his helmeted head on the road pavement at freeway speed. Miraculously he spent only a brief period in the hospital and then was released. When he returned to work, however, he began experiencing excruciating headaches and cognitive issues.

He kept his difficulties to himself and continued to do his job. Eventually, however, other employees noticed that he was slurring his speech and could not track information and numbers. Shortly thereafter his employers told him he would need to take leave to care for his medical needs.

He applied for disability and, despite the medical support from his doctors, the disability carrier denied his benefits. Prudential reasoned that because he had worked for several months without making complaints to anyone, he wasn’t disabled.

He then hired the Fields Law and our attorneys reached out to medical providers and obtained records, which clearly documented cognitive difficulties and impairment, and filed an appeal. Prudential reviewed the appeal and determined that it would reverse its denial and began making disability payments. Our client earnestly wishes to go back to work but will need some time to work through his cognitive issues and is very appreciative that he now has the money to sustain himself through that period of therapy and healing.

Our team represented a worker who was unable to continue his job due to neurocardiogenic syncope. This syndrome an autonomic nervous system reflex disorder that causes the individual’s heart rate and blood pressure to drop, leading to fainting episodes. In discontinuing the worker’s benefits, the insurance company relied on the opinions of two doctors who had never even seen the man, but felt that he could perform sedentary work based on their review of his medical records. Additionally, the insurance company stated that restrictions, as provided by the treating doctor, were preventative in nature and not indicative of his ability/inability to perform gainful work.

The Fields Law team presented a strong appeal to the insurance company. We argued that our client’s restrictions were in place to prevent him from fainting and sustaining further injury and those restrictions did not preclude payment of benefits under his policy. The Fields Law team also gathered updated medical records for the client and illustrated that his condition had not improved since he was initially awarded benefits. Based on these efforts, the insurance company agreed to reinstate our client’s benefits.