Kerr Law PC

04/12/2016

ERISA does not preempt right to sue for emotional distress caused by disability claims handling:

http://benefitslink.com/src/ctop/Kresich_NDCal_04042016.pdf

02/24/2016

If your disability insurance company has denied your claim, these quotes may sound eerily familiar:

“Although the Plan determined that there was not objective medical documentation of Shaw’s inability to perform any occupation, it ignored favorable evidence submitted by his treating physicians, selectively reviewed the evidence it did consider from the treating physicians, failed to conduct its own physical examination, and heavily relied on nontreating physicians.”

“Instead of offering evidence to contradict Dr. Reincke’s residual-functional-capacity questionnaire’s conclusions, the Plan’s physician advisors simply ignored the questionnaire and concluded that Shaw could perform sedentary work.”

“The Plan ignored favorable evidence from Shaw’s treating physicians by failing to make a reasonable effort to speak with them. Although the Plan’s physician advisors attempted to contact each of Shaw’s treating physicians, they gave the treating physicians only 24 hours to respond to their requests before they made their disability decisions ‘based on available medical information.’ None of the physicians was able to meet this unreasonable deadline. Physicians, like other professionals, are busy and cannot always return calls immediately. Thus, ‘although persons conducting a file review are not per se required to interview the treating physician,’ the cursory manner in which the Plan attempted to contact Shaw’s treating physicians is evidence that the Plan’s decision was not ‘the result of a deliberate, principled reasoning process.’”

Shaw v. AT&T Umbrella Benefit Plan No. 1, __F.3d __, 2015 WL 4548232 (6th Cir. July 29, 2015).

02/24/2016

The U.S. Department of Labor recently proposed regulations that would affect disability claims. The most important parts of these:

1. Conflicts of Interest: Decisions regarding hiring, compensation, termination and promotion of any individual (i.e., claims adjudicators and medical experts) must not be made based on the likelihood that the person will support the denial of disability benefits.

2. Adverse Benefit Determinations: All adverse benefit determinations must discuss and include the basis for disagreeing with any disability determination made by the Social Security Administration.

3. Claimants must be given the opportunity to review and respond to evidence developed during the appeal and any new rationale for the claim denial before the final claim decision is made.

These regulations are not final. Kerr Law, P.C. can help you navigate your disability claim now and in the future, even as the law changes. Contact us for a free consultation!

01/18/2016

“. . . [N]either prejudice nor bad faith is required to impose a penalty under 29 U.S.C. 1132(c).”

Harris-Frye v. United of Omaha Life Ins. Co., Case No. 1:14-CV-72 (E.D. Tenn. 2015).

12/14/2015

The Department of Labor is proposing some changes to the way ERISA is applied to disability claims.

In particular, decisions regarding hiring, compensation, termination and promotion of any individual (i.e., claims adjudicators and medical experts) must not be made based on the likelihood that the person will support the denial of disability benefits.

Is the Department of Labor finally acknowledging that disability insurers encourage their employees to deny claims?

11/17/2015

Harris-Frye v. United - There need not be findings of bad faith & prejudice in order to impose statutory penalties.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-tned-1_14-cv-00072/pdf/USCOURTS-tned-1_14-cv-00072-2.pdf

11/17/2015

Fontaine v. MetLife: The court held that laws prohibiting discretionary clauses are not exempted by ERISA.

Hopefully every state will get a law like this so we can go back to the de novo standard of review, and away from the awful "abuse of discretion" standard.

http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2015/D09-04/C:14-1984:J:Hamilton:aut:T:fnOp:N:1617225:S:0

06/04/2015

http://buzzon.biz/2015/06/augusta-attorney-named-to-state-position/

Augusta Attorney Named to State Position Posted on June 3, 2015 by Gary Kauffman Augusta attorney Robert Kerr was recently appointed to the position of special assistant to the Attorney General of the state of Georgia. In this position, Kerr will represent the Department of Family and Children Servi…

03/31/2015

The battle is truly on now. Judge denied MetLife's motion to dismiss today!

03/18/2015

Most long term disability benefits provided through employers are taxed, meaning the 60% of a disabled employee's income is reduced even further.

03/13/2015

The average short and long term disability plans pay 60% of a worker's salary.

How important is it to secure 60% of your salary when you are unable to work at all and have no other source of income?

03/04/2015

In 2014, 39 percent of private industry workers had short-term insurance and 33 percent had long-term insurance.