Mental illness and LTD benefits.
According to Health Canada, mental illness is the second leading cause of disability in Canada. In a 2008 article, the Institute of Health Economics reported that on any given week at least 500,000 employed Canadians are unable to work due to mental illness. Disability insurance claims involving mental illness make up nearly 40% of my practice. There are a number of unique challenges of applying for disability benefits involving mental illness. 1. The insurance industry sees your claim as a “problem”. Due to volume of disability benefits claims involving mental illness, the...
read moreCan an LTD claim be resolved without trial?
Although many disputed Long Term Disability claims lead to lawsuits, most claims settle before trial. There are a number of approaches a disability lawyer can pursue to resolve a long term disability claim without a trial: 1. Reinstatement – this is the simplest way to resolve a long term disability claim. The insurer will pay a lump sum to bring the disability benefit up to date (i.e. payment of arrears), and then restart payments under the disability policy. This type of resolution will often occur when the insured is young and the prognosis for a return to work is uncertain. In this...
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