Short & Long Term Disability Cases We’ve Won for Our Clients Against Various Insurers

A Field Service Technician from Florida began developing severe bilateral claudication and bilateral non-diabetic neuropathy in his legs. No longer able to work all day on his feet, he was forced to leave work as a result. He applied for both Short Term and Long Term Disability benefits from his insurance carrier. Unfortunately, the insurance company denied his claim. In their denial letter, they repeatedly cited the opinion of a doctor he had only seen once.

He knew he needed help appealing the insurer’s decision and retained Fields Law. The Fields Law attorneys quickly outlined the weaknesses in the insurer’s denial letter and began crafting pointed arguments to counter their assertions. The Fields Law team also secured a supportive narrative and functional capacity evaluation from our client’s treating physicians. Fields Law then submitted the appeal well before the insurer’s deadline. After sending it to their internal review department, the insurance company soon overturned their prior decision and approved both Short Term and Long Term Disability benefits. Our client soon received two checks for his back-benefits, and the insurer began paying out future Long Term Disability benefits.

A teller at a bank came to us after her insurance company denied her disability benefits. She was distressed because she suffered from advanced degenerative disc disease, cervical radiculopathy, fibromyalgia, and chronic pain and simply could not do her job. She was dealing with ongoing pain in her back, arms and legs that diminished her quality of life and made it impossible for her stand for long hours at work. Aetna claimed that there was not enough evidence to support her disability and denied her.

She contacted Fields Law to represent her in appealing the insurance company’s denial. We worked with her doctors to obtain objective evidence of the impairments that made her unable to perform her own occupation. The doctor provided us with information concerning our client’s functional restrictions and limitations, which allowed us to question the insurance company’s assertion that she was able to do her job.

After thorough analysis of the law and our client’s case, we drafted an appeal that exposed the insurance company’s improper and deficient review of our client’s limitations. Our appeal was successful and our client now receives the benefits to which she is entitled. She was relieved that our team was able to fight Aetna to pay her benefits without having to file a lawsuit.

An Instrument Technician from Delaware suffered from tibia dysfunction, bilateral foot arthritis, bilateral knee osteoarthritis, degenerative joint disease of the knees, hypertension, congestive heart failure and sleep apnea. After being taken off work by his doctors he applied for Long Term Disability benefits through his employer’s plan. Originally, CIGNA approved his benefits, but then discontinued them asserting his conditions had sufficiently improved such that benefits were no longer payable. This occurred shortly after he was approved for Social Security Disability benefits.

He reached out to Fields Law Firm for help appealing this decision. Our attorneys drafted an appeal that established CIGNA had relied upon selective evidence that misstated our client’s work restrictions and limitations and the required abilities of his occupation. Additionally, we received narrowly tailored narrative reports from our client’s treating doctor’s outlining his actual limitations and restrictions, which clearly make it impossible for him to perform his own occupation. After reviewing our appeal, CIGNA reversed its denial, paid our client his back pay, and recommenced monthly benefit payments.