If you want to get a long-term disability claim in Uxbridge, you need to be patient, persistent and often have a good lawyer to deal with the insurance company’s demands. We have helped many people who thought their insurance company would be there for them when things got tough only to have their claims denied or delayed for no reason. It gets worse when the money you were counting on disappears overnight. We know how tough it is for you at Longo Lawyers and we work hard to make sure you get the benefits your policy promises. Personal Injury Lawyer Fabio Longo is dedicated to helping clients recover the compensation they deserve with professionalism, integrity, and proven results.
Long-term disability insurance is there to help you pay your bills when you can’t work because of an illness or injury. But insurance companies are businesses that want to make money so they look at every claim very closely to find reasons to deny or lower payments. This makes the relationship between the two sides adversarial which many claimants find shocking and unfair. We use our experience and knowledge to make sure your rights are protected and your insurance company does what it says it will do in your policy.
To make a successful claim you need to know exactly what your disability policy says. These contracts have technical language and exact definitions that have a big impact on whether you can get benefits. Words like “total disability”, “own occupation”, “pre-existing condition” and “elimination period” have specific meanings that can help or hurt your claim. We review your policy carefully and explain what coverage you have in plain language. This is the foundation for making a good plan that fits your specific needs and the rules of your policy.
Medical records are the most important part of any disability claim but getting the right proof takes more than just going to the doctor. Insurance companies want detailed reports that explain your diagnosis, treatment plan, ongoing symptoms, prognosis and most importantly how your condition prevents you from doing your job. Generic statements don’t cut it. We help you work with your doctors and nurses to get all the medical records you need to answer all of your insurance company’s questions. This often includes functional capacity evaluations, specialist assessments and reports that clearly show how your medical problems affect your ability to do your job.
When you want benefits for boating and watercraft accidents that cause long-term disabilities you face unique challenges. Insurance companies will say the first accident happened but later they will say you should have gotten better enough to go back to work. They will say the ongoing symptoms are exaggerated or not related to the first event. We work with doctors who know how serious accidents can affect people for a long time and can explain why your recovery isn’t going as quickly as the insurance company thinks it should. Expert testimony is often what makes the difference between a claim that is denied and one that is approved.
There is a lot of paperwork, strict deadlines and detailed forms to fill out for long-term disability benefits. If you miss a deadline or don’t give all the information you need your application will be automatically denied. We help with every part of the application to make sure it meets all the requirements. This includes helping you write down your job duties in plain language, getting the right medical paperwork and sending everything in the right format and on time. If you start with a well-prepared application your chances of getting approved go up a lot and the chances of problems later go down.
Even for claims that seem clear-cut and well-supported denials happen more often than most people think. Insurance companies give many reasons for denying benefits such as not having enough medical evidence or not agreeing with your doctor’s diagnosis. Some denials come from insurance company doctors who review your file but never see you in person. These paper reviews look at your medical records from a distance and come to conclusions that often disagree with what your doctors say. We challenge these unfair reviews by pointing out their flaws and stressing that doctors who have seen you and know your case better than anyone else.
The appeals process for claims that have been denied has strict time limits that don’t allow for any delays. Most policies only give you 30 to 90 days to file an appeal and this deadline is strictly enforced without exception. We make sure your appeal is filed on time and has strong arguments that address each reason given for the denial. To win an appeal you need to do more than just say you disagree with the decision. You need to give more proof, fix any mistakes in the original application and make legal arguments showing why you meet the requirements for benefits under the terms of your policy.
Many disability claims in Uxbridge are based on conditions that can’t be proven with objective tests. Chronic pain disorders, fatigue syndromes, cognitive impairments and mental health conditions often depend on symptoms that can’t be measured accurately with imaging or lab tests. Insurance companies are especially skeptical of these claims and will say the symptoms are exaggerated or that you could work if you really wanted to. We have developed ways to present these cases such as detailed symptom journals, statements from family members and coworkers that back up your experience and suffering and medical opinions that back up your claims.
Insurance investigators use surveillance as an invasive way to investigate disability claims. Companies will hire people to follow you, watch what you do in public and look at your online presence to see if there are any inconsistencies with what you say you can and can’t do. This is legal but it makes you feel like a fraud instead of someone who is trying to get real benefits. We help you understand that not being able to do a lot of things doesn’t mean you can’t work. You can’t work 40 hours a week just because you go grocery shopping, go to the doctor or go to family events. We make sure any surveillance evidence is put in the right context instead of being twisted to make it look like recovery.
When you can’t work and your expected disability benefits are denied or delayed the financial pressure becomes too much to handle. During this tough time the cost of hiring a lawyer might seem too high. We work on long-term disability cases on a contingency fee basis which means you don’t have to pay us anything unless we win your benefits. This way everyone can get good legal help no matter how much money they have right now. Our success depends completely on your success which means our interests are always the same as yours.
We still think keeping in touch with you during your case is very important. It’s easy to get lost in the legal process and you should know what’s going on at every step. We use plain language to explain what’s going on and we’re always here to answer questions. You should never be unsure about the status of your case or what to do next. Regular updates and clear explanations can help you feel less anxious during a stressful time and give you the support you need throughout the process.
Your treating doctors are important to your disability claim but they may not know exactly what information insurance companies need. Doctors are more concerned with diagnosing and treating illnesses than with writing down disabilities for insurance purposes. We work with your medical team to get full reports that go into detail about your functional limitations, work restrictions and prognosis. This may mean asking for extra evaluations or setting up specialized tests that give objective proof of your claim and make your case stronger.
Another common issue we see all the time is when benefits are cut off after they have been approved. Sometimes insurance companies will approve your claim at first but then say you have recovered or you can do other work. These terminations often happen without notice and may be based on medical reviews that aren’t very good or a misunderstanding of what you do. We fight against unfair benefit terminations by showing we still have a disability with new medical evidence and by pointing out flaws in the insurance company’s reasoning and decision-making process.