An Illinois disability attorney recently filed a federal lawsuit against the Standard Insurance Company (Standard) after his client was denied long term disability benefits. The Plaintiff worked as a Trial Attorney and took out two policies of disability income insurance from Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company (which was later acquired by Standard Insurance Company) to provide monthly disability income benefit payments if Plaintiff ever became disabled. Unfortunately, the Plaintiff became disabled. A timely claim was made, however, Standard never provided benefits.
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An employee of Nestle USA who was fully qualified to receive her disability benefits from Standard Insurance Company and her South Carolina disability attorney filed an ERISA lawsuit against the insurer in South Carolina Federal Court on July 1, 2011. As the sole entity responsible for determining the award of disability benefits to claimants, Standard Insurance Company was both the claim administrator and the fiduciary of the plan in the evaluation of Dawkins’ claim. Thus, Dawkins and her South Carolina disability attorney filed their claim under the Employee Retirement Insurance Security Act (ERISA).
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Rose Mary Lee filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court of Nevada against Standard insurance Company, Woodside Group, Inc., and Woodside Group, Inc. Employee Disability Plan on May 30, 2011. In her Complaint, Lee alleges that the Standard Insurance Company and her employer violated their fiduciary duties under her disability insurance policy because of a conflict of interest because Standard is both the decision maker as to benefit awards and the payor of monies that satisfy benefit awards.
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Even though companies offer their employees long-term disability insurance, the disability application process is often more difficult than one would expect. It isn’t as simple as just taking out the policies and taking advantage of the benefits when you need them. Quite often employees are forced to enlist the services of a disability attorney in order to collect money that is justly theirs, and for those who have no other source of income it can be a tedious and difficult process.
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With no consideration of the job description of Bobby Hankins position as Director of Security for Stephens Inc., Standard Insurance Company denied Hankins’ long term disability claim, forcing Hankins to file a Complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas Western Division. As a stipulation of ongoing employment with Stephens Inc., Hankins had to be able to “run or walk 1.5 miles in under 15 minutes and 54 seconds . . . run 300 meters in under 66.0 seconds . . . perform a vertical jump of at least 15.5 inches . . . bench press at least 78% of [his] body weight . . . and perform at least 30 sit ups in one minute.”
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