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

A Minneapolis man had worked as a Machinist for over 35 years before being forced to leave work as a result of developing camptocormia, congestive heart failure and advanced osteoarthritis of the knees. He applied for Long Term Disability benefits from his insurance carrier, but was denied. He appealed the insurer’s denial once himself, but received a subsequent denial from the carrier.

Knowing he needed help, he retained Fields Law to represent him and fight the insurance company. His Fields Law attorney began building his appeal by reviewing the insurer’s denial letter claims and drafting pointed arguments to counter them. The Fields Law team also acquired significant medical records proving our client’s disability and a narrative report from his primary treating physician and submitted the completed appeal. After reconsideration, the insurer overturned their prior denial and approved our client’s benefits. He soon also received a check for the back benefits from his date of disability.

Due to significant cognitive and memory difficulties, as well as severe anxiety and depression, a store manager had to leave work. She applied for Long Term Disability benefits through her employer’s plan. At first, her claim was denied because the insurer could not “rule out” that her claim was barred by a pre-existing condition. After she was able to establish her conditions were not pre-existing, New York Life once again denied her claim for benefits based upon a medical record review that asserted her doctors failed to support their opinions with objective evidence.

The Long Term Disability lawyers at Fields Law were able to successfully argue that her doctors had provided objective testing evidence to establish her disability. Moreover, our team successfully secured narrative letters from multiple providers and persuasively argued that she satisfied the definition of disabled under the policy, and that New York Life misstated and ignored vital evidence. After reviewing our appeal, the Long Term Disability insurance company reversed its denial, paid over a year’s worth of back benefits, and began paying regular monthly disability benefits.

The Fields Law team helped a former middle school worker who was forced to stop working due to major depression, anxiety, panic disorder with agoraphobia, and urticaria. Her disability insurer denied her Long Term Disability benefits. The Standard claimed that she was able to perform the material duties of her job and based its denial on a doctor’s review of our client’s medical records that was entirely inaccurate. This doctor had never even seen her as a patient and he conducted a selective review of her medical records.

The appeal we drafted for our client revealed the inadequacy of this doctor’s review and showed that the doctor ignored substantial medical evidence that was contrary to his conclusions. We used medical records to show the severity and persistence of our client’s symptoms. Fields Law Firm helped the worker fight every step of the way to reverse The Standard’s denial of benefits and ensured that she continued to get the benefits she deserves.