Disability Insurance Lawyers

Employee Benefits | Life, Health, and Long term Care Insurance Law

Our insurance and benefits team can help you through the whole process, from filing a claim through fighting an insurance company in court.

National Disability Insurance Attorneys

Learn how our team ensures your story will be heard in our 3 minute video.

What does it mean that we’re National Disability Insurance Attorneys? It means that our Disability Insurance Team at Eric Buchanan & Associates helps individuals nationwide who have been denied disability insurance benefits and employee benefits. We’re experienced in advocating for people across the country who have been wrongfully denied benefits that they were promised by their insurance company. Wherever you are in the process, our insurance and employee benefits team can help you apply for, or fight denials of, disability insurance benefits, life insurance, health insurance, or other insurance benefits.

We understand how difficult it can be not to know what to do or who to turn to when dealing with the insurance company after your benefits have been denied. When you're dealing with a devastating loss of health and financial hardship, it is important to have an experienced disability team on your side.

When you are dealing with a devastating loss of health and financial hardship, it is important to have an experienced disability team on your side.

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When do I need the help of a disability insurance attorney? The most important time to hire a disability insurance law firm, like the disability team at Eric Buchanan & Associates, is before filing an appeal of a denial of the claim. Under most rules that apply, the best time to get an insurance company to change its mind, and the best way to have a better chance in court, is to ensure that the best evidence available is submitted to the insurance company before they make a decision on appeal.

Some people make the mistake of trying to appeal on their own, and even go so far as obtaining medical records and letters from their doctors. Unfortunately, that is usually not enough; instead, disability insurance attorneys can work with treating doctors to make sure that the doctors actually address the restrictions and limitations that make a person legally disabled, and to obtain other evidence that can help with the fight in court to prove the person is disabled. There are many things that an experienced disability insurance lawyer can do to improve a disabled person’s chance of winning their case before an insurance company or later in court.

Some people make the mistake of trying to appeal on their own . . . Unfortunately, that is usually not enough.

At Eric Buchanan & Associates, our team has worked for years to develop our process and to discover the best ways to prove someone is disabled, to convince a disability insurance company that one suffers from a disability, and the best ways to improve the chance of winning in court.

We believe claimants stand a better chance of getting a favorable decision if they hire an attorney before they file an appeal. Many times, we can help with a disability claim even after the person has filed an appeal. While the chances of success go down at this point, sometimes insurance companies make such bad mistakes or ignore the law that we can still help.

Learn how our team ensures your story will be heard in our 3 minute video.

Also, some people choose to hire us before they even file a claim or early in the claim process. We have found this can be the best way to have a good chance on a disability case. When our clients partner with our disability team early on, we can use all of the tools we have to give our clients the best chance of winning or settling.

We handle cases all over the United States, working with other local attorneys at times, or on our own, and we can help fight even the most unfair disability insurance denials. If you have any questions about your disability insurance benefit claim, policy, or a letter you have received from an insurance company, call the office of Eric Buchanan & Associates today. If you have been denied benefits, you need to contact competent attorneys who regularly handle disability insurance cases - as soon as possible.

An experienced team of attorneys, like those at Eric Buchanan & Associates, can help you cut through the administrative tape the insurance companies have put in place to deny the benefits that you are rightfully owed.

At Eric Buchanan & Associates, we understand that anyone facing a lengthy or permanent disability has a tough road ahead. Learning to live with a condition that limits your ability to earn a living or care for yourself or your family can certainly be overwhelming. While resources should be available to provide monetary compensation to pay for the help you need, you should not have to deal with insurance companies fighting to protect their bottom line or with red tape that makes it difficult to get valid claims accepted. An experienced team of attorneys, like those at Eric Buchanan & Associates, can help you cut through the administrative tape insurance companies have put in place to deny the benefits that you are rightfully owed. So, you need a disability lawyer with the skills and experience to explore every available option and fight hard to pursue the compensation you need. We are here to help disabled individuals understand and collect the benefits rightfully due them under their private disability insurance policy.

Top Five
Reasons
to hire Eric Buchanan and Associates to represent your disability case

Attention

We are selective about the cases we take, so we can provide each client with the attention he or she needs.

Nationally Recognized

We are nationally recognized and help clients all over the United States.

Rule Changers

Our team has fought for our clients so long, and so well, that we have helped change the rules so the law is more on our clients’ side.

Eric Teaches

Eric Buchanan regularly teaches other attorneys, nationwide!

We Fight

We know how to fight for you, to get the best result for you in your case.

There are special, complicated rules that apply if your insurance or other benefits were provided through your work, even if you paid the premiums. We understand ERISA.

If you are covered by long term disability insurance through your job or because you have purchased the coverage privately, you should be able to count on the benefits being there when you need them.

Doctors often have disability insurance policies that have special rules applicable to medical professionals, and doctors often work in special circumstances different from most others. We have helped many doctors and understand the best way to help a doctor obtain the benefits due.

Lawyers, accountants, business owners and other professionals often have disability insurance policies with provisions specific to their occupation. Our team fights for professional’s benefits, we understand how to combat insurance companies' denial tactics.

MEET OUR ATTORNEYS

Eric's team of benefits and disability lawyers in Chattanooga, Tennessee can help you as it has already done for thousands of other disabled people nationwide.

Eric L. Buchanan

President + Partner

Meet Eric

Hudson T. Ellis

Partner

Meet Hudson

Audrey Dolmovich

Junior Partner

Meet Audrey

Noah Breazeale

Associate Attorney

Meet Noah

Kaci Garrabrant

Associate Attorney

Meet Kaci

Kaitlyn Barciszewski

Associate Attorney

Meet Kaitlyn

LEGAL MEMBERSHIPS AND AWARDS

HAVE YOU RECENTLY BEEN DENIED YOUR
DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS?

We have seen many cases where an insurance company takes advantage of someone who is unrepresented.

Disability Insurance Benefits Basics

Fortunately, when a person buys an individual disability insurance policy directly from an insurance company, in most cases, the law helps experienced attorneys protect their clients’ rights. Most individual disability insurance cases can be fought over in court using state laws that favor the person with the policy over the insurance company, or at least provide a level playing field. If the insurance company does something really bad, some states even allow for the person who is wrongfully denied to sue for more than just the benefits, by suing for bad faith and punitive damages. But individual disability insurance cases are not like more common lawsuits, and they can also be extremely complicated.

Attorneys who know about the inner workings of insurance companies, the rules of insurance law, regulations and contracts, all which can vary from state to state, can better represent their clients in court and obtain a favorable outcome.

Attorneys who know about the inner workings of insurance companies ... can better represent their clients in court and obtain a favorable outcome.

We have seen many cases where an insurance company takes advantage of someone who is unrepresented.

If your claim is denied, we will litigate your long term disability case, ERISA case, or similar case, against any insurer nationwide.

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How do I know if the disability insurance attorneys I hire can take on the really big insurance companies? Eric Buchanan & Associates is a boutique law firm, focusing primarily on disability insurance, ERISA insurance, and similar insurance benefits, like life insurance claims. Because we are a boutique firm with a focused practice area, we have learned the ins and outs of disability insurance law, ERISA law, bad faith law, and insurance law. In fact, we have been so successful that some of our cases have resulted in improving the law to be more helpful for other disabled people who have to fight in court. You can see our list of cases here . Because we limit our practice to this specific area of the law, our team knows what it takes to fight the big insurance companies and win in the right cases. In fact, we have learned so much about the way the big disability insurance companies handle claims that we can help our clients present the best disability insurance claim possible, and if that claim is denied, we know what questions to ask in court and what to prove to help convince a judge or jury that the disability insurance company did not make a fair decision, and that benefits should be paid. Or, by showing the insurance company that we can prove that type of information in court, we can help our clients obtain a good settlement in the right cases.

We have been so successful that some of our cases have resulted in improving the law.

Why not hire a local disability attorney? If you have the flu, or need your appendix removed, you would go to your local doctor. But, if you need a very complicated cardiac surgery, you might prefer to be treated by a nationally-known heart surgeon, such as one that teaches other doctors how to perform heart surgeries.

Our disability team regularly takes cases to court, and litigates cases to the end when the insurance companies are not willing to settle. Our experience in court helps to ensure we can handle tough disability insurance cases.

Finding the right attorney to handle your disability insurance denial is a similar search. Disability insurance cases are different from most other areas of the law, requiring experience in understanding complicated medical conditions, understanding disability vocational issues, reading disability insurance policies, as well as knowledge of ERISA law and how it may overlap with state insurance law. A very good disability insurance attorney also should have knowledge of specific disability insurance companies, including how and why they deny claims, what procedures the disability insurance companies follow, and what questions they don’t want a disabled person to ask. The disability team at Eric Buchanan & Associates has handled thousands of disability cases, and has helped many clients who have been denied disability insurance.

Some of the types of cases we regularly and successfully handle include Individual Disability, Life Insurance, ERISA Benefits, Disability Claims for Doctors, Professionals and Executives, UNUM Claim Denials, Social Security Disability Benefits Denials and more.

Why do I need the help of disability insurance attorneys? Disability insurance companies make lots of promises about what will happen when someone who buys a policy becomes disabled. Unfortunately, the real world of disability insurance contains too many stories of promises made and promises broken. Insurance companies often deny valid claims, knowing that people will give up or try to appeal on their own, so that the insurance company will ultimately win and not have to pay the disability insurance benefits. Disability insurance companies also know that even when some people hire attorneys, they hire attorneys who are not familiar with particular disability insurance companies, with disability insurance law, and how some disability policies might fall under the federal ERISA law.

The real world of disability insurance contains too many stories of promises made and promises broken.

Because ERISA law is much better for the insurance company, most disability insurance companies will try to argue that a policy falls under this law, even when the policy should not fall under ERISA. And, when ERISA does apply, the disability insurance companies know that too often attorneys don’t know how to best handle an ERISA case. Because too many people do not hire experienced disability insurance attorneys early enough in the process, disability insurance companies count on getting away with the denials of many claims, and saving money by winning cases or settling cases cheap. The disability team at Eric Buchanan and Associates is made up of attorneys, paralegals, and other staff that help disabled people from all over the country fight wrongful denials of disability insurance benefits.

We have seen many cases where an insurance company takes advantage of someone who is unrepresented.