If you are a high-level professional, you have job demands that require uncompromised abilities from your mind and body. An illness or injury that leads to a physical, mental or emotional disability can keep you from fulfilling your occupational responsibilities, and can prevent you from maintaining your income.
At Steve German, A Law Firm, in Scottsdale, we help professionals, such as yourself, with initial claims' handling practices, all through completion of your claim. Our practice is dedicated to helping you obtain the benefits you are entitled, so you can concentrate on your health, and putting the pieces of your life together.
Call us today at 480-607-9166 to schedule a free consultation with an experienced Arizona attorney.
Have Your Long-Term Disability Insurance Benefits Been Denied?
At Steve German, A Law Firm, we have extensive experience negotiating and, when necessary, litigating with insurance companies to win long-term disability insurance benefits for our professional clients. We represent a wide range of professionals, each with their own physical and mental challenges:
- Lawyers and CPAs: A physical or mental condition that restricts your ability to concentrate for long hours, to multitask, or to handle the stress and rigors of your occupation can constitute a disability under the terms of your policy.
- Medical professionals: Injuries and illnesses to your back, hands, wrists, or shoulders are a few types of afflictions we routinely see that can render a doctor, dental specialist, anesthesiologist or other medical professionals disabled.
- Business owners: If you are disabled either due to injury or illness, and your earnings are diminished in whole or in part, your insurance policy may provide for Business Overhead Expenses incurred while you are unable to work, which can facilitate or bridge the gap during your period(s) of disability.
- Professional athletes: The physical demands of the NFL, NBA, MLB and other professional sports leagues notoriously lead to disabilities for active and retired athletes. Whereas current players sign multimillion-dollar contracts on a daily basis, the players who got them there are being wrongfully ignored. We are uniquely equipped to help veteran athletes and those deserving of disability benefits receive what they deserve.
Regardless of your profession, the insurance you thought was in place may not be there to the extent you expected. Unfortunately, too often it is not a matter of completing a claim form, submitting your doctor's statement and waiting for the benefits to flow.
To the contrary, insurance companies have become more and more savvy. Millions of dollars are spent on surveillance. Millions more are spent on doctors and other experts hired by the insurance companies to say (A) you are not disabled ("You are fine to operate regardless of the tremor."); and (B) your occupation is not what you thought it was ("You are not an orthodontist; you are a business person.").
You often need an advocate to break through unfair and illegitimate defenses to paying what is rightfully yours. Our attorneys carefully examine each insurance policy, assure that the benefits represented are those that were promised when the policy was bought, and present your claim so that the insurance company's wiggle-room becomes a nonfactor.
Simply put, we will advocate for your benefits to the fullest extent we reasonably can, and will not allow you to become an insurance company casualty. If your insurance provider acts in bad faith, we are well equipped to counter their tactics in and out of court.
Own Occupation Insurance Coverage
It is very likely that the insurance you purchased covers your own occupation. These "own occ" policies found favor in the 1980s and on into the 90s. Own occ disability insurance is intended to protect insureds in the event they are unable to perform the substantial and material duties of their actual occupation.
Insurance companies will try to undermine the purpose of these policies and may maintain that the duties of your occupation are broader or less demanding than what they truly entail. Whether or not you are able to work in some obscure niche of your occupation, you are totally disabled under your own occ policy if you are unable to perform material duties of that occupation. If your insurance company disputes this, we will stand up for you and protect your rights under the policy.
Contact Our Firm Today
Are you preparing to submit a claim for long-term disability insurance benefits, or have you received a wrongful claim denial? We are prepared to help. Please contact us online or call us at 480-607-9166 to speak with an experienced long-term disability insurance lawyer.
Whether your benefits have been denied, or you are still preparing your initial claim, we will help you get the disability benefits you bargained for when times were better. We represent clients in the Phoenix metropolitan area, throughout Arizona and across the U.S.
