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Chronic Pain Syndrome disability claims can have various proof issues. This is true for private long-term disability (LTD) insurance or group insurance plans. Disability examiners need objective evidence of how your condition keeps you from being able to work.
With a strong helping hand, you can get the benefits you deserve. Ask a disability lawyer at our firm about your chronic pain disability claim.
Coping With Chronic Pain Syndrome
How to Prove a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Disability Case to Get LTD Insurance Benefits
Are you applying for long term disability insurance benefits for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? Here’s important Information to help you understand and prove chronic fatigue syndrome to the insurance company.
Chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, is one of five conditions that are commonly labeled as “subjective disorders.” What does this mean? It means that they can’t be proven through objective medical testing.
Cerebral Atrophy Disability is the gradual, progressive loss of brain cells. Atrophy is a trait that is typical of certain diseases that affect the brain. “Atrophy” means the wasting away, or the decrease in mass, of a part of the body. When brain tissue atrophies, or shrinks, there is loss of neurons and connections between the neurons. Cerebral atrophy can occur throughout the entire brain or in one select region of the brain.
The progressive wasting away of brain cells generally leads to the loss of neurological function. Commonly associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s, cerebral atrophy can be caused by many medical conditions that act to destroy brain tissue.
While the condition itself may not be a recognized “impairment” in some medical listings, many of the causes of cerebral atrophy – such as Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease – are.
Has your claim for carpal tunnel syndrome disability been denied? Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a painful impairment of the wrist, hand and fingers. It is caused by pressure on the median nerve that passes through the narrow tunnel of ligaments and carpal bones. The median nerve receives sensations from the thumb and fingers and controls movement of the fingers and thumb.
Symptoms of CTS include intense sensations of tingling, radiating pain, weakness, numbness, or burning. Carpal tunnel syndrome can have serious effects on one’s ability to work and perform daily activities, even the simplest of tasks.
Any disorder exerting pressure on the median nerve in the wrist area can cause carpal tunnel syndrome. Common causes include trauma, thyroid disorders, arthritis, and diabetes, as well as repetitive hand, wrist and finger flexing motions over long period.
Simplified Employee Pension Plans (SEP) – A plan in which the employer makes contributions on a tax-favored basis to individual retirement accounts (IRAs) owned by the employees. If certain conditions are met, the employer is not subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of most retirement plans. Under a SEP, an IRA is set up by or for an employee to accept the employer’s contributions.
Is it possible to sue under ERISA?
Yes, you have a right to sue your plan and its fiduciaries to enforce or clarify your rights under ERISA and your plan in the following situations:
An insurance policy is a contract between the policyholder and the insurance company. Every insurance policy includes an “implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” which requires that the insurance company act in good faith toward the policyholder. When an insurance company violates this covenant by acting in bad faith toward a policyholder, the policyholder may have the right to file a lawsuit against the insurance company that includes both tort (personal injury) and contract claims due to Insurance Bad Faith.
Bad faith is broadly defined as dishonest dealing. Examples of bad faith practices by insurance companies include:
Why is bad faith insurance important?
Our experienced ERISA Disability Lawyers in Kentucky will help you answer questions to your ERISA Disability needs.
1. THE BASICS
A federal law known as ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) is a complicated and comprehensive law that sets minimum standards for retirement and welfare benefit plans in private industry. ERISA does the following:
On March 30, 2017, a case from the Western District of Kentucky concluded Kentucky’s highest court would likely hold agreements that assign settlement proceeds from lawsuits are in violation of “Kentucky public policy and the statute proscribing champerty[.]” Boling v. Prospect Funding Holdings, LLC, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48098, at *12 (W.D. Ky. March 30, 2017).
Christopher Boling, the Plaintiff in the case who suffered burn injuries from a gas can, sued a manufacturer. Mr. Boling then entered into various agreements with two companies (Prospect Funding Holdings, LLC (“Prospect”) and Cambridge Management Group, LLC) in which, in exchange for the borrowed money, he promised payment to the companies based on a “prospective recovery” from his lawsuit against the manufacturer. Boling later filed suit against Prospect, asking the Court to declare that he was not required by law to repay the monies he borrowed. As noted above, Judge Stivers held the Agreements were void. Judge Stivers also opined the interest charged by Prospect on the money advanced to Mr. Boling violates KRS 360.010(1), Kentucky’s usury law. Mr. Boling was not required to make payment under the Agreements.
You can read Judge Stivers’ opinion addressing the above information as well as other issues here.
In Kentucky, an insurance company is not the only party that can be sued for its involvement in insurance bad faith. In fact, insurance adjusters can also be sued for their liability in practicing insurance bad faith. Two Kentucky circuit courts have refused to dismiss allegations made against insurance adjusters. The defendants in both cases attempted to rely on Davidson v. American Freightways, Inc., 25 S.W.3d 94 (Ky. 2000), to have the claims against the adjusters dismissed. However, Judge Daugherty of Jessamine Circuit Court’s Division I ruled that “claims adjusters fall under the category of agents engaged in the business of insurance” so the claims against the adjuster were proper. See Marsh, et al. v. Starns, et al., Civil Action No. 17-CI-00042 (Jessamine Cir. Ct., Mar. 27, 2017). Fayette Circuit Court also previously refused to dismiss claims against an insurance adjuster.
On January 31, 2017, Honorable Thomas D. Wingate, Franklin Circuit Court’s Division II Judge, granted Plaintiff Lisa Warren’s motion for partial summary judgment and denied Defendant Auto-Owners’ motion for summary judgment. The Court held that Ms. Warren had satisfied the first prong of the test for a first-party bad faith claim as required in Wittmer v. Jones, 864 S.W.2d 885, 890 (Ky. 1993) by proving the insurance company was obligated to pay her claim under the terms of her insurance policy. The Court disagreed with Auto-Owners’ argument that an insurer’s “obligation to pay its policyholders’ claims only arises once all judicial remedies it chooses to pursue have been exhausted[.]” Instead, the Court held that such an interpretation of the Wittmer test “confounds the concepts of contractual obligations of an insurer and the insured[.]” Warren v. Auto-Owners Insurance Company, Civil Action No. 09-CI-910, at *5 (Franklin Cir. Ct., Jan. 31, 2017).
An insurance company cannot use litigation as a tactic to prevent its obligation to pay under a claim of insurance bad faith.
Click here to read Judge Wingate’s full opinion.
Kentucky ERISA Disability & Life Insurance Claim Lawyers