Short & Long Term Disability Cases We’ve Won for Our Clients Against Reliance Standard

A Shipping & Storing Supervisor from California had a serious work injury and could not work anymore. His employer provided Long Term Disability insurance that he began receiving while pursuing his Workers’ Compensation claim. After his Workers’ Compensation case settled, he had to change doctors. Reliance Standard used that as an opportunity to terminate his benefits.

The team at Fields Law immediately contacted our client’s new and prior treating providers. We made sure Reliance Standard did not exploit the change in doctors by gathering statements from the doctors and updated medical records. The appeal put together by the Fields Law team got our client’s benefits restored and his back benefits paid. Our client was very happy to be able to focus on his medical treatment and not insurance company paperwork.

A customer service agent who was suffering from an immunity virus, chronic low back pain, and coronary artery disease was abruptly cut off from his disability benefits based on the insurance company’s selective and partial review of his medical and vocational records. In support of the discontinuation, Reliance Standard stated that the claimant should be capable of frequent and continuous sitting and frequent standing and walking. Reliance Standard relied on the opinion of a Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist who reviewed the employee’s file and stated that he was able to perform sedentary work.

The disabled worker called Fields Law because he knew that Reliance Standard had made a mistake. Our team prepared a winning appeal for our client that exposed the inadequacy of the insurance company’s review. In preparing the appeal, we gathered reports from our client’s treating doctors and highlighted parts of his medical records to show that he remained entirely disabled from not just his own, but any occupation. We forced Reliance Standard to admit its mistake, reinstate our client’s Long Term Disability benefits and award him back pay for lost benefits.

An electrical engineer from Arizona suffered a series of electrical shocks triggering multiple cognitive and functional deficits. Further, while receiving treatment for neuropsychological conditions, he was diagnosed with dementia. Unfortunately, his insurer, through a third-party administrator, denied his claim for Long Term Disability benefits. Reliance Standard commissioned a medical record review and relied on that review over multiple exams and clinical documentation from our client’s treating doctors.

Fields Law Firm took on the case to help appeal this decision. The lawyers at Fields Law secured narratives from multiple treating providers, responding to Reliance Standard’s denial. This included an expert opinion from an independent vocational expert documenting that he could not perform any other substantial work, let alone his own occupation. After reviewing our appeal, Reliance Standard reversed its decision, paid almost a full year’s worth of back benefits, and began making monthly payments again.