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

A Regional Sales Manager from Michigan developed a strange cognitive condition where he would suffer from chronic dizziness, instability and memory loss. Unable to work any longer due to his disabilities, he left work and applied for disability benefits from his insurance carrier. Prudential denied his application for both Short Term Disabillity and Long Term Disability benefits.

Knowing he needed help to appeal Prudential’s decision, he hired Fields Law. The Fields Law team of attorneys began gathering the necessary documentation for compiling his appeal. They acquired updated medical records from his providers and wrote to all of his primary doctors, asking for letters of support. We then drafted an appeal of the denial decision, arguing that Prudential misconstrued and omitted much of our client’s medical documentation. They accepted the appeal and after several weeks of consideration overturned their prior decision, granting back benefits through the Own Occupation stage of disability.

A young man who worked as a document processor for a Detroit law firm was hit by a drunk driver. As a result, he suffered a disc herniation in his neck, cervical facet syndrome, and a cervical spine sprain. He was in constant pain and eventually was forced to undergo surgery to fuse his cervical spine at the C4-C5 disc. Due to his condition, he was unable to continue working. His insurer initially approved him for Short Term Disability benefits. When he applied for Long Term Disability benefits, his insurer alleged that he was capable of performing his job and denied his benefits.

Unsure of what to do and how to live without an income, he got in touch with Fields Law. Our attorneys began compiling all of the necessary medical records and reached out to the client’s doctors to obtain narrative reports which detailed his impairments, treatment, and continuing symptoms. Our attorneys then submitted a compelling appeal to the insurer. Upon review, our client’s benefits were promptly reinstated. Our client was overjoyed to find out that the insurer had reversed their denial and was able to rest easy knowing that he would have an income to live off of.

A man from Michigan was originally taken off of work for his bilateral rotator cuff tears, severe arthritis and degenerative disc disease of the back, and degenerative joint disease in both right and left knee. He applied for Long Term Disability and began receiving monthly payments. He was also approved for Social Security Disability. However, four months before his policy’s definition of disability changed to “Any Occupation”, CIGNA informed him that they determined he would not satisfy the changed definition of disability and it was therefore paying the remaining months prior to discontinuing benefits. He filed an appeal but unfortunately, CIGNA upheld its decision.

He reached out to Fields Law for help with the final appeal available to him. The attorneys at Fields Law were able to build an appeal documenting CIGNA’s numerous misstatements and mischaracterizations of relevant evidence. Further, we built significant support from our client’s treating doctors through narrative reports, asking narrowly tailored questions to CIGNA’s doctors and outlining their true opinions in this case. After reviewing our appeal, New York Life reversed its decision, paid our client his back pay and monthly benefit payments.