Articles Posted in Long Term Disability Claim (LTD)

Fibromyalgia is a serious disorder characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, depression, memory loss and other symptoms which vary from person to person.

Some doctors believe in fibromyalgia.

Some doctors don’t.

The same way that some doctors believe that fibromyalgia exists and is a very real and debilitating condition; and other doctors don’t; some insurance companies accept that fibromyalgia is very real and can have a significant impact on a person’s livelihood and ability to engage in day to day activities.

Some insurance companies don’t accept that fibromyalgia is real. They will want to create a narrative that fibromyalgia is a figment of your imagination. They will hope to establish that because you cannot see fibromyalgia on any sort of objective test like an x-ray, CT Scan or MRI Report that it’s simply not there. They will also try to create the narrative that you can fight through or work through whatever pain or ailment it is that you’re experiencing.

This is a false narrative. There are hundreds of thousands of people across Canada who suffer from fibromylagia, and there are countless doctors across the country who treat people for fibromyalgia. Don’t let your insurance company beat you down and crush your hope; because this is exactly what they’re trying to accomplish.

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The personal injury lawyers here at my law firm, Goldfinger Injury Lawyers have developed a unique term for certain long term disability cases.

We call it getting “mathed out“.

What does it mean to get “mathed out“? It means that the math is working against you to defeat your claim, regardless of the merits of your disability.

Let’s explore how long term disability cases work.

These are cases which are based in contract. That contract takes the form of an insurance policy. Often we see our claimants with group policies, which contain sections for health, dental, life, and long term disability insurance. These group policies are a perk of employment (a benefit). Had the person not been gainfully employed, they would not have been covered under the policy; hence they would have no cause of action.

Some employees don’t have any benefits whatsoever, so if they don’t have their own personal long term disability insurance, they won’t have a cause of action.

On one hand the claimant needs to be thankful that they have a policy or long term disability coverage to lean on. But on the other hand, many claimants get upset that the policy seems to work in favour of the insurer and not the other way around.

The wording contained in these policies is written by large insurers. Because large insurers write the policies, you can expect that they contain a lot of favourable clauses protect their own interests and not yours. Why would you expect an insurer to draft a policy that doesn’t work in their favour? We just don’t see this sort of thing.

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My law firm handles a lot of long term disability claims.

These are cases whereby large insurance companies like Great West Life, Sun Life, Manulife, Canada Life, Industrial Alliance, Desjardins Insurance, La Capitale Insurance, RBC Insurance, Co-Operators Insurance etc. cut off, cease to pay or terminate one’s long term disability benefits.

We have represented people of all ages, from all different walks of life, with different occupations. People like doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, postal workers, university employees, municipal/government employees, civil servants, mechanics, general labourers, janitors, casino employees, factory workers, automotive sector employees, machinists, plumbers, tradesmen, bus drivers, truckers, brick layers, retail employees, clerical/secretarial staff, bankers, and even people with cushy desk jobs who work in giant towers in downtown Toronto. The list goes on.

Some people don’t lawyer up. They try to appeal these denials or terminations of benefits on their own. Our long term disability lawyers rarely see these appeals go anywhere. It’s like going to a gun fight with a rubber knife. All the appeal does is to serve the insurance company in establishing a patter of denials and kicking the can down the road for a few months in the hopes that a limitation period lapses to prevent a Plaintiff from bringing their claim in the requisite period of time. It’s an exercise by the insurance company to give the illusion that they are treating your claim with the upmost best intentions. But the reality is that your claim was doomed to succeed in the first place. Once the insurer looks at it in a negative light, it’s very difficult to sway the insurer in the other direction to have the claim approved without the assistance of a personal injury lawyer with experience handing long term disability claims.

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In the final instalment of a four-part series on long-term disability insurance, Toronto personal injury lawyer Brian Goldfinger discusses some of the unique issues that surface in LTD claims filed by educators and postal workers.

Toronto personal injury lawyer Brian Goldfinger refutes any perception that teachers and postal workers have cushy jobs as they are among the top clients he helps fight for in long-term disability (LTD) claims.

“Both jobs have generous vacations, but that’s a trade-off,” says Goldfinger, founder of Goldfinger Injury Lawyers. “When you sign up for it, there are significant amounts of stress and pressure, and nobody gives these workers their due respect.”

Teachers and postal workers share a number of commonalities, he tells AdvocateDaily.com. “Both are unionized and have access to a variety of benefits, but they’re in very high-stress, difficult jobs and they don’t get proper credit.

“They take some time off for stress, but it gets extended because their doctors or therapists believe their work environment is unhealthy for them,” Goldfinger says.

“It sounds strange because people often assume teachers are in a class of smiling, happy children, or that a postal worker has a dream job,” he says.

Goldfinger says that while many of these cases involve stress leave, physical issues are also common.

He points to a 2017 survey that found almost nine in 10 teachers have experienced or witnessed violence or harassment in the workplace.

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