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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.

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.

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.

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.

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