Erisa Lawyer banner

Monthly Archives: May 2015

Beware Of And Avoid This Disability Policy Trap!

scott-davis (1)

By Scott E. Davis, Disability Attorney

The title of this article could also be named, “how to avoid the psychological benefit limitation” that is likely lurking in your company’s disability policy.

When people are unable to work and their short and/or long term disability claim is approved, whenever it can, the disability insurance company often uses a psychological diagnosis as the basis for paying the claim regardless of any physical diagnoses which you may believe are disabling.  Indeed, even if you filed your disability claim based on a physical diagnosis, if you also have much smaller psychological issues such as depression or anxiety as a result of your inability to work, the insurance company can say that it is approving your claim based on the psychological diagnosis. Continue reading

What Is ERISA? Why Is It So Bad?

scott-davis (1)

By Scott E. Davis, Disability Attorney

ERISA is the acronym for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.  ERISA is a very broad, far reaching and complex federal law that governs every American employee’s benefits at their workplace.

Since it is federal law, ERISA supersedes and replaces state law, even though your state law may provide you with more consumer protections than ERISA does.  Over the course of the last four decades, a law that was initially meant to provide protections to American workers has become employer and insurance company friendly while providing few obvious protections for American workers.  While ERISA does charge your insurance company or employer with a fiduciary duty to administer your employee benefits in a full and fair manner, the reality is, this does not occur. Continue reading