PROVEN LAWSUIT RESULTS

Black Jack Dealer - Michigan, ND

Right Frozen Shoulder

“A woman was forced to end her career as a Black Jack dealer after a series of shoulder injuries resulted in frozen shoulder. She received benefits from her long-term disability insurer for more than three years before the insurance company sent her to a doctor to be evaluated. That doctor provided an opinion to the insurance company, which stated that the woman should be able to return to work. Thus, the insurance company stopped paying he benefits. She attempted to appeal the insurance company’s decision on her own, but the insurance company refused to reinstate her benefits.

The woman turned to Fields Disability for help. We had the opportunity to file a second appeal. We used that opportunity to build up the evidence in her file. We included updated medical records and disability opinions from her doctors. Although the insurance company did not overturn their decision based on that appeal, Fields Disability was able to proceed forward with a lawsuit against the insurer because we were confident with the evidence in the file. In the end, the insurance company was willing to pay our client a substantial amount of money to settle the claim, rather than submitting the issues to a judge.”

Mixer Driver for a Concrete Company - Louisburg, NC

Chronic Back Pain, Bilateral Knee Pain

“Our client worked as a mixer driver for a concrete company. Our client became disabled from doing this job due to chronic back and bilateral knee pain. His diabetes, hypertension, and sleep apnea also contributed to his disability. The insurance company initially paid our client long term disability benefits. However, the insurance company abruptly discontinued his benefits based on an Employability Assessment it conducted, which stated that our client was capable of performing gainful employment based on his lack of restrictions and limitations, as well as his education, transferable skills, work history and residual capacity.

The disabled worker, confused and distraught about the insurance company’s actions, came to Fields Disability. Our team was able to spot critical errors made by the insurance company when it discontinued our client’s benefits. In preparing the Employability Assessment, the insurance company had based the analysis of his workability on a misleading report from a doctor. This doctor had released our client to work with no restrictions, but he only based his decision on the resolution of a temporary shoulder injury our client suffered from. The doctor did not consider our client’s disabling conditions, for which he was approved for benefits in the first place. The Fields Disability attorneys prepared a strong appeal exposing the insurance company’s mistakes, leaving the insurance company having no choice but to reverse its decision and reinstate our client’s long term disability benefits.”

Bookseller/Author - Mokelumne Hill, CA

Autoimmune Disease

“A self-publishing author and employee of a California bookstore was only a few years away from retirement when she applied for and was granted long-term disability benefits from her private insurer. Then, in a two week time period, her husband died, she was evacuated from her home during a forest fire, and she developed complications with her auto-immune disease.

Completely distraught and grieving the loss of her partner, she was shocked when the insurer began harassing her with phone calls and threatening to discontinue her benefits. After reducing her payments by almost 70%, the insurance company abruptly cut off her benefit payments, claiming that the woman had failed to provide minor earnings information about several books she had written.

She felt like she couldn’t take the stress anymore, and just wanted to give up. Fortunately, she found Fields Disability while searching the internet, and gave us a call. She spoke with an attorney right away, and was relieved when we promised to fight the abusive insurer.

First and foremost, our attorneys put an immediate stop to the insurance company’s harassment, and provided the income information they claimed to be missing. We then demanded reinstatement of our client’s benefits, arguing that her income from the book sales was not covered under the disability policy and therefore could not be defined as active employment.

The insurer soon replied with a letter reinstating our client’s long-term disability benefits with back pay. However, our client wanted to get a lump sum settlement of her benefits, so she wouldn’t have to worry about being cut off again in the future.

The Fields Disability team worked diligently and quickly secured a full settlement of our client’s benefits claim. She soon received a large check in the mail, three times what she thought she would get! She was able to cash it knowing she would be financially secure and protected from any further harassment.”

Accountant - Marlinton, WV

Shoulder Pain, Neuropathy, Arthritis, Diabetes

“In 2005, an accountant from West Virginia seriously injured her shoulder in an accident at home. She had multiple surgeries, but ultimately regained only limited use of her right arm. She stopped working because she was in constant pain and had limited use of her dominant hand. Guardian Insurance approved her application for long-term disability benefits, and she received benefits from Guardian for almost ten years until she received a letter saying that she was no longer disabled and that Guardian would stop paying her benefits.

Shocked that Guardian would stop benefits after almost ten years, she contacted Fields Disability to assist with an appeal. Our attorneys diligently searched through our client’s medical records and found the insurance company ignored several comments from doctors. Fields Disability attorneys called our client’s doctors to write full reports so Guardian could not ignore them in the appeal. Ultimately, our client was awarded continuing long-term benefits and a lump-sum payment for back pay. She was pleased with the professional staff at Fields Disability and relieved to have financial peace of mind once again.”

Customer Service Representative - Forrest City, AR

Neuropathy, Amputated Toes

“A customer service representative from Arkansas began to lose feeling in his feet. Eventually, as a result of complications with diabetes he had three toes amputated. The alternating pain and numbness became too much and he was forced to stop work in 2015. He received long-term disability benefits for a few months through his employee insurance policy, but was suddenly told by the insurance company that he no longer fit their definition of “disabled”.

Worried that he was running out of money for treatment, he contacted Fields Disability for help with his appeal. The attorneys at Fields Disability scoured the insurer’s case file and gathered doctor’s reports to strengthen the appeal. The insurer denied the appeal.

Our attorneys filed a law suit in federal court against the insurance company. During preparations for trial, Fields Disability attorneys negotiated a generous lump-sum settlement for our client. He was happy to be done fighting the insurance company, and pleased to be able to use the settlement check to pay for his treatment.”