Has Northwestern Mutual Denied Your Disability Claim?
Northwestern Mutual is a popular provider for long-term disability coverage in the United States. The company sells many short-term and long-term disability policies to our nation’s health care workers. But, Northwestern Mutual is also one of the worst when it comes to denying long-term disability claims. Northwestern Mutual handles thousands of disability claims just like yours every single day. THEY ARE IN THE BUSINESS TO DENY CLAIMS. This is because it’s cheaper to deny someone’s benefits than to pay on a claim. Has Northwestern Mutual denied your disability claim?
Do You Think Your Disability Company Will Pay?
Insurance companies should be in the business to help the people who buy their insurance. But, long-term disability companies have just one goal . . . to collect premiums from the people they insure and then to nick pick every claim until they have collected enough evidence to DENY!!!
Northwestern Mutual Is Not On Your Side
Northwestern Mutual is no exception to the deny game. Even if you have already won your disability claim, insurance companies often set you up to deny you later on down the road.
A perfect example of this is in the case of Armani v. Northwestern Mutual Ins. Co., where Northwestern Mutual has language written in some of its policies which will provide long-term disability coverage if the employee is unable to perform his or her own occupation. But, this coverage will only last for 24 months. Then, the employee’s condition must be reassessed to determine whether there is “any occupation” that the employee can perform.
Northwestern Mutual will go to great lengths to find some occupation that one of it’s insured members can perform. As in the cases of Mathews v. Northwestern Mutual Life Ins. Co. and Hansen v. Northwestern Mutual Life Ins. Co., if you did numerous duties at your job, Northwestern may use that against you to show that there is some type of work you can do. In the Hansen case, Northwestern denied an obstetrician claim saying that baby deliveries and surgeries were not her only primary duties. Northwestern claimed that Dr. Hansen had multiple primary duties as an OB/GYN. Because she could perform some of her job, she was not entitled to long-term disability under her Northwestern Mutual policy.
If you’ve been denied Social Security Disability benefits, Northwestern will often use that against you to deny your claim. This happened in the case Ezerski v. Kirlins out of Ohio.
If you are not able to work due to a disability and have Northwestern Mutual as a long-term and/or short-term disability company, you’ll probably end up getting a denial letter.
Employee Benefit? Not so much!
If your Northwestern Mutual disability policy is provided as a benefit by your employer, your disability claim likely falls under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). ERISA is a federal law that was passed to make it easier for people to get disability through their insurance companies. But, what really happened is that the claims that fall under this law have become very difficult to navigate, because the rules are so complex.
Right now, if you have received a denial letter, the insurance company is going to want you to believe that you have to appeal the denial without getting a lawyer. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FALSE!!! The insurance company hopes you won’t get a lawyer so they can build a case to deny you again. Then, when your case is appealed to the federal courts, they will have filled your file with only their information. If you don’t have an attorney working with you early on in a disability denial, you won’t have the opportunity to build your case with the records that support you.
Remember, the insurance companies are experts at denying claims. They know the laws and know what information they need to make sure they don’t have to pay your claim.
What Makes Ritchie Law Firm Different?
Many Virginia lawyers say they practice Social Security Disability law. But, most of those lawyers don’t work with long-term disability or short-term disability insurance claims. Before you hire any lawyer to handle your long-term or short-term disability claim, you should ask if he or she has been trained in handling or has handled ERISA claims before. If that attorney can’t answer yes, he or she is probably not the right lawyer for you.
That’s what makes us different. At the Ritchie Law Firm, we have a team of lawyers who have been trained to handle the complexities of long-term and short-term disability cases. Sure, we also handle Social Security Disability cases. But, ERISA long-term and short-term disability cases are a different beast. And, we know how to handle them.
If you have been denied long-term disability benefits, our disability team will review your denial letter for FREE. Then, with no obligation and NO STRINGS ATTACHED, we’ll tell you our game plan for winning your case.
If you want your long-term or short-term disability case handled by a team of lawyers trained to handle this difficult area of the law that few lawyers know the first thing about, your search is over. Whatever stage of applying for benefits you are in, whether you haven’t yet applied or you’ve been denied, we are happy to help. We can even help if you live in states other than Virginia or West Virginia by associating with counsel local to the jurisdiction where you live.
We can help with denials from both ERISA and non-ERISA (private) disability plans. Click here to give us some details about your case.
