Disability Benefit Tip of the Week: Documenting Your Correspondence

In order to ensure that your insurance company and Social Security received any letters, forms, or records that you sent, it is a good idea to use the following guidelines:

• Send everything via certified mail, return receipt requested
• If you do fax something, save the confirmation page
• Keep copies of everything you send to the insurance company or Social Security, including reports and forms you fill out
• Keep notes about who you speak with, including their name, phone number and extension, the date, and the time, as well as what you discussed
• Use some kind of organizational system, such as folders or a three-ring binder, to store and sort any correspondence. Keeping paperwork in order according to date is also a good idea. If you need to hire an attorney in the future, it will help him or her quickly understand the progress of your claim.

Keeping copies of any forms that you fill out will help you stay consistent when the insurance company or Social Security asks you to fill out similar forms in the future.

REMEMBER: You cannot be too thorough in documenting and tracking your claim. It is better to have too much information than not enough.

Copyright (c) 2008 by John V. Tucker and Tucker & Ludin, P.A. All rights reserved. For assistance with your Long Term Disability claim, ERISA Disability benefit claim, Social Security Disability claim, or Veterans Disability compensation or pension claim, call Disability Lawyer John Tucker at (866) 282-5260.

What is ERISA and How Does It Apply to Your Disability Claim?

What is ERISA? It is shorthand for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a federal law passed in 1974 that regulates employee benefits for all private employers (those which are not the government or a church).

What does ERISA have to do with your Short Term Disability ("STD") or Long Term Disability ("LTD") claim? If you have STD or LTD insurance through work, then ERISA applies to your coverage. If you have become disabled and have to file a claim, your claim is going to subject to ERISA. That means that you lose a lot of rights that people who buy individual STD or LTD coverage have under state law. The federal ERISA law allows federal courts, not state courts, to hear ERISA disability claims. ERISA also prohibits jury trials like you might get in state court. Finally, many states require insurance companies that lose disability cases in court to pay your attorney fees, but under ERISA, it is an option that the federal judge may require, but often does not.

Finally, the most important thing to understand about ERISA claims is what is called the "standard of review." This is the method a judge uses to review your claim if it goes to court. Under ERISA, most STD and LTD cases are reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard of review on motions submitted by both parties. There is no trial, and the judge has an obligation to uphold a denial if there is any reasonable basis for the insurance company's decision to deny the claim. Compare that to state court where a jury would get to hear from you and your doctors in a real trial if you have bought your own insurance from a local insurance agent outside of work. In fact, all of the evidence in an ERISA case gets created before a case is finally denied. If you have an ERISA claim, be sure to get all of your doctors records, opinion letters, forms and other information in support of your claim in to the administrator BEFORE you get the last denial letter. If you wait, you will not be able to get it into evidence in court.

In many ways, ERISA works in favor of plan administrators - usually an insurance company. You should hire an experienced ERISA attorney if you become disabled and have STD or LTD coverage through work.



Copyright (c) 2008 by John V. Tucker and Tucker & Ludin, P.A. All rights reserved. For assistance with your Long Term Disability claim, ERISA Disability benefit claim, Social Security Disability claim, or Veterans Disability compensation or pension claim, call Disability Lawyer John Tucker at (866) 282-5260.

Veterans Administration Shredding Documents By Mistake!

You may have heard of the problems the Veterans Administration ("VA") has had with document shredding. If not, check out these articles from the St. Petersburg Times about horrible problems at the VA's Florida Regional Office at Bay Pines here in Pinellas County:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/article867002.ece
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/article868654.ece
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/article870556.ece
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/article860293.ece
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/article867002.ece
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/article868654.ece
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/article870556.ece

To say that this is disgraceful is an understatement. We are advising our clients that they only send things to the VA by certified mail or some other means that offers proof of delivery (like FedEx or UPS or courier). If you hand deliver something, write up a receipt and have someone sign it, print there name and write the date you delivered it on the receipt.

Here are some tips to prove to the VA that you submitted materials in support of your application for VA service-connected compensation or VA pension disability:

1. Use certified mail. Whatever you do, get proof that it was received.
2. If you have deliver anything, have the person that takes it sign a receipt.
3. When you go to a VA Medical Center, get copies of your records.
4. If you deliver or send anything to the VA, KEEP A COPY FOR YOUR RECORDS.
5. If you speak to anyone at the VA about your claim file ("C-File"), get their name, and write it down with the date and time you spoke to them.
6. When you send things to the VA, send a cover letter explaining why you are submitting materials, and list the documents you are sending them as enclosures.

You do not want to be one of the vets who is wondering if the VA shredded your documents. But if you have the misfortune of the VA doing that to you, you need to be able to proof what you sent and when they got it.

Copyright (c) 2008 by John V. Tucker and Tucker & Ludin, P.A. All rights reserved.