The Chartwell Chronicles: Permanent Disability
Physician Employment Agreements: Focus on Financial Planning
An Overview of New Jersey Workers' Compensation
An Overview of Massachusetts Workers' Compensation
Workers' Compensation Academy: Requests by Defense Counsel – A Defense Analysis of Materials Needed from Carriers and Clients for NJ Workers' Compensation Claims
An Overview of New York Workers' Compensation
Workers' Compensation Academy: Pennsylvania COVID-19 Update: Layoff or Furlough from Light Duty as a Result of COVID-19
This month’s Friday Five discusses cases addressing the effect of continuing to receive benefits during the period of alleged disability, reliance on an employer’s records in making a disability determination, the...more
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are two federal disability benefits programs that provide monetary assistance for people with disabilities. Both programs allow recipients who...more
This month’s Friday Five explores recent decisions with issues spanning physician power of attorney to preexisting exclusions and the fiduciary duty of an insurance company....more
Stephen Conrad v. Department of Transportation (WCAB); No. 557 C.D. 2022; filed Feb. 26, 2024; Judge McCullough - The claimant underwent an Impairment Rating Evaluation (IRE) on September 20, 2011, following a July 5, 2005,...more
Life Policy Lapse Shortly Before Insured’s Death - In Simon v. USAA Life Insurance Co. (Mar. 29, 2024), the insurer denied death benefits under a term life insurance policy, which had lapsed for nonpayment of premium two...more
On March 21, the 3rd Department delivered four new rulings. Learn more below. Kaminski v. Integrated Structures, CV-22-2295 (3rd Dept. 3/21/24) - The Appellate Division affirmed the Board’s decision to deny a carrier’s 2nd...more
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to an alleged conflict of interest leading to discovery, two courts’ opposite treatments of subjective pain complaints, a decision that claims of fraud and misrepresentation were...more
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to petitions for attorneys’ fees, unpersuasive self-reported evidence of disability, and a dilatory attempt to augment the administrative record....more
This month’s Friday Five explores decisions regarding the timeliness of appeals, the support necessary to sustain an LTD termination decision, a court’s discretion to credit and discredit expert opinions, the circumstances...more
This month’s Friday Five addresses two cases involving disability claims that touch on Covid-19, a Circuit Court ruling for an insurer, a district court ruling that a 20-year-old regulatory settlement precluded an insurer...more
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to a plaintiff’s attempts to seal a complaint seeking disability benefits, an administrator’s uncommunicated decision to discontinue its investigation into certain medical...more
In Sturdivant v. NC Department of Public Safety (No. COA22-421), the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirms Full Commission Opinion and Award denying extended benefits under N.C.G.S. 97-29 (c)...more
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to discovery in ERISA benefits cases, an appellate court strictly interpreting ERISA regulatory deadlines, a district court authorizing an ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claim...more
An employee is injured on the job and cannot immediately return to work. Whether to offer salary continuation or permit temporary total disability compensation to be paid under the workers’ compensation claim is a...more
Do you prefer face-to-face meetings? Do you struggle getting through a phone tree or finding what you need online? Many of our clients receive Social Security Retirement benefits, Social Security Disability benefits, and...more
In Newsom v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., the Fifth Circuit clarified when it is appropriate for a district court to remand an ERISA dispute to a plan administrator for development of a merits record. 26 F.4th 329 (5th...more
This month’s Friday Five explores recent decisions tackling a myriad of issues, including: (1) whether reclassification of a claimant’s health status constitutes an adverse benefit determination; (2) whether remand is the...more
In Hall v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117331 (N.D. Cal. June 23, 2021), a California district court held that an ERISA claim administrator properly terminated long-term disability (LTD) benefits after the...more
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to: (1) whether a state statute prohibiting discretionary authority in disability benefit plans applies to non-state residents; (2) how a court may weigh multiple denials and...more
On June 8, 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court in Richter v. Oakland Board of Education affirmed the Appellate Division’s ruling that an employee asserting a failure to accommodate claim does not have to separately establish...more
In Carlile v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 988 F.3d 1217 (10th Cir. 2021), the Tenth Circuit found the term "active" full-time employee ambiguous and awarded disability benefits to an employee who became disabled after...more
A federal court in New Jersey recently applied the arbitrary and capricious standard of review for a denial of benefits claim despite the enactment of an anti-discretionary statute in Minnesota, which governed the benefit...more
This month’s Friday Five discusses cases that address the meaning of “active, full-time employee,” whether remand is required where an improper standard of review was applied, the standard for capacity in reference to a...more
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that federal courts can review decisions by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board denying claimants’ requests to reopen prior benefits denials. Salinas v. U.S. R.R. Ret. Bd.,...more
On February 3, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Salinas v. United States Railroad Retirement Board, No. 19–199, holding that a refusal by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board to reopen a prior benefits determination is...more