Insurance Lawyers: Private Disability Insurance Disputes
When you and your loved ones depend on your income, a great deal is riding on your shoulders. What would happen to you and your family if an accident, injury or disease left you unable to work?
Independent professionals often purchase private disability insurance to protect them from these risks. They pay a steep premium for the peace of mind insurance provides.
A Shattering Experience
When an unfortunate event occurs, however, many private disability insurance policyholders find their former peace of mind shattered by a claim denial. They discover the disability insurance they believed they could rely upon isn't there for them after all. They find themselves too sick or injured to work the way they used to and facing tremendous financial hardship.
At Pillsbury & Levinson, LLP, our insurance attorneys have successfully resolved disputes for a variety of private disability insurance policyholders.
Insurance companies market private disability insurance to high-income professionals, including medical professionals (doctors, dentists, and mental health professionals), lawyers, executives, accountants and business owners. These are the people most able to pay the companies' high premiums and most in need of protection should their ability to earn a living be jeopardized by illness or injury. Insurance companies that offer private disability insurance recognize that paying full benefits to a disabled professional can be extremely expensive, and they use every possible tactic to avoid paying private disability claims.
Anything to Avoid Paying
They will examine your application and, if there is any indication of a preexisting condition related to your disability, they may attempt to rescind, or retroactively cancel your policy. They may request extensive, far-reaching and irrelevant personal records, including your tax returns and attempt to show that you have inflated your income in your benefits claim. They may insist that you be examined by their own doctors, many of whom are paid handsomely to issue medical opinions favorable to the insurance company. They may hire private investigators to follow you around, photographing and videotaping you, hoping to find evidence of fraud.
We represent private disability insurance policyholders in insurance coverage disputes and insurance bad faith litigation. If you would like skilled legal assistance in obtaining the full amount of insurance benefits you deserve, please contact us today. If the insurance company has acted unfairly or in bad faith, we will, where appropriate, pursue punitive damages in addition to full policy benefits.
From our offices in San Francisco, we represent clients throughout California in private disability insurance disputes.
