Long Term Disability ERISA and Private Disability Insurance Claims
Social Security Disability (SSD)
Florida City and State Pension Disability Claims
Your Rights to Florida Workers’ Compensation Benefits - Medical Care and Lost Wage Benefits
Florida First Responders and Their Rights to Workers' Compensation Benefits

Florida's First Responder Heart/Lung Benefits: What You Need to Know
Your Wage and Hour Rights -Information Your Employer Never Wanted You to Hear.
Your Rights to Social Security Disability Benefits - Information the Social Security Administration Rarely Tells Your About Your Claim.
Robbed of Your Peace of Mind? Important Information on Long Term Disability Insurance Policies, The Claims Process, and How to Win Your Long Term Disabality Benefits.
| August 28, 2008. By Jane Mundy | RSS Del.icio.us Seed Newsvine Facebook |
The giant insurance company didn't even send Linda a letter of explanation. Linda re-read her policy and couldn't find any reason to have her disability payments stopped. "I made my payments to them on time, I was never late on a premium panyment," she adds. "They had absolutely no reason—my circumstances hadn't changed and I am still disabled. I was living on a very limited budget and panicked—what was I going to do? I couldn't afford an attorney…
In print: Friday, July 18, 2008
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The government insurance that is owed to people who are no longer capable of working is no less urgent than that paid to a family left homeless after a flood. But the Social Security Administration has turned disability insurance into a waiting game so cruel as to sometimes claim lives before paying claims.
The bill that U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, is introducing in Congress would finally put the government on a clock. It would have no more than 75 days to schedule a disability claims hearing and, then, no more than 15 days to rule.
As Castor demonstrated with some of the people she gathered for a news conference on Monday, the delays and rejections are often indefensible. Shelly Burke, who suffers from diabetic neuropathy, has been unable to work since 2000. She was twice the denied the benefits she deserved, and won them only with the help of an attorney and only after eight years of delays.
"I don't know what I would have done without my mother," Burke said. "I've been one of the lucky ones.'
In fairness to the Social Security agency, its staff has suffered cutbacks at the same time it has seen a dramatic increase in caseload. It also faces far too many attempts to defraud the government, including recently disclosed attempts by private insurers to force their injured claimants to file, wrongfully, for Social Security disability insurance.
That said, the agency still suffers some of the institutional distrust that once led the Regional Appeals Office to report that bosses were telling caseworkers to "deny, deny, deny." The agency has rebounded from those ugly purges during the Reagan administration, but one reason for the staggering backlog of cases today is that far too many claims are being wrongly denied by the original caseworker. In turn, those denials are appealed, and two-thirds of them are reversed.
The assumption that everyone is trying to cheat the system has cost those who aren't. The average wait for a person filing a disability claim to get a hearing before an administrative judge in Tampa is now 685 days, and some cases last for years. Even Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue has acknowledged that some disabled people have died while waiting. Yet Astrue has still done little to address the problem. Imagine the Federal Emergency Management Agency trying to prevent flood insurance payments for nearly two years after a storm.
More administrative judges and caseworkers will cost money that Congress has to be willing to provide, but Castor is shining the light in the right place. These delays are inhumane.
Question: I have a clerical job at a large, non-union health-care facility, in which one of my responsibilities is lifting and moving heavy file folders. A few weeks ago, I hurt my wrist on the job. It was painful enough that I had to go home, though not before I was required to take a drug-and-alcohol test.
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Employer can reduce injured worker's pay...
RALEIGH, N.C. — Steadily lengthening delays in the resolution of Social Security disability claims have left hundreds of thousands of people in a kind of purgatory, now waiting as long as three years for a decision.
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Disability Cases Last Longer as Backlog Rises...
People earning the state minimum wage of $6.79 an hour cannot afford to live in Nassau County, according to a recent study looking at what it costs to live here.
And even when the national minimum wage goes to $7.25 in 2009, it still won't be enough.
It takes a full-time hourly wage of at least $8.53 for an individual living alone to $24.65 an hour for a single parent supporting three babies to pay the most basic bills, according to the Self-Sufficiency Standard for Florida report issued in November by the Human Services Coalition, a nonprofit Miami organization that monitors health and human service needs.
For mor information, follow the link below.
Read More About Study Shows Minimum Wage Not Enough to Live In Parts of Florida...
Burger King is telling suppliers it may stop buying tomatoes from southwestern Florida, where farmworkers have fought to get the hamburger chain to pay more for its produce, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has tried for more than a year to get Burger King Corp. to join deals signed by rivals McDonald’s Corp. and Taco Bell owner Yum Brands Inc.
For more information, follow the link below.Read More About Starwatch consumer: Burger King pressures suppliers...
Florida employers have saved millions of dollars on workers compensation costs since 2003 changes curbed premium costs.
Some of them are about to save even more. For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Employers owed $42 Million...
January 28, 2008 -- On New Year's Eve, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation released its annual report on the state of the market for workers' compensation insurance to the Florida Legislature.
The report detailed the availability and affordability of coverage for workers' compensation insurance in Florida for calendar year 2006. In conclusion, they found that Florida is the largest market dominated by private market insurers (as compared to state sponsored residual market entities such as those in New York and California).
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Florida Workers' Compensation Rates Reduced For 5th Consecutive Year...
A Rapid City couple was indicted last week in federal court for allegedly lying to the government to receive disability benefits.
Lonnie Holloman has received $123,333 in fraudulent Social Security Disability Income since sustaining a back injury in 1991, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say Holloman worked full-time as a truck driver for Doug Faul Trucking Company between 1998 and 2001, after which he worked for his wife’s Holloman Trucking Company.
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Couple indicted in disability scam...
Florida is the largest workers' compensation insurance market in the nation dominated by private market insurers, according to a state report released this morning.
The annual report to the Florida Legislature on the state of the market for workers' compensation insurance was conducted by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. It analyzed the availability and affordability of coverage for workers' compensation insurance in Florida for the calendar year 2006.
For more information, follow the link below.
SEATTLE, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Keller Rohrback L.L.P. (http://www.erisafraud.com) today announced its ongoing investigation against First American Corp. ("First American" or the "Company") for potential violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"). The investigation focuses on investments in First American stock by the First American Corporation 401(K) Savings Plan (the "Plan").
Keller Rohrback's investigation involves concerns that First American and other administrators of the Plan may have breached their ERISA-mandated fiduciary duties of loyalty and prudence to participants and beneficiaries of the Plan. A breach may have occurred if the fiduciaries failed to manage the assets of the Plan prudently and loyally by investing the assets in Company stock when it was no longer a prudent investment for participants' retirement savings.
For more information, follow the link below.
RALEIGH, N.C. – Steadily lengthening delays in the resolution of Social Security disability claims have left hundreds of thousands of people in a kind of purgatory, waiting as long as three years for a decision.
Two-thirds of those who appeal a first rejection eventually win their cases.
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Social Security disability cases are taking longer...
LONDON, Dec. 7, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM) Inc employees participating in the company's 401(k) plan filed a class-action lawsuit, claiming the group failed to adequately monitor the plan and advise participants when the company stock investment was no longer prudent.
As a result, employee participants suffered total financial losses of more than 150 mln usd.
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Washington Mutual faces class action suit on alleged ERISA violations...
SUNRISE (CBS4) ? People facing foreclosure come from a cross section of the South Florida community. Some were speculators buying condos and homes hoping to get rich, others bought bigger homes than they could afford.
The people hardest hit however are those who experienced a personal setback or tragedy shaking their very foundations.
Just two years ago, Jennifer Chapman thrived as a cheerleading coach in Weston. "My whole life has changed for the worse right now."
Jennifer cannot walk. An ATV accident left her in a wheelchair with nerve damage. Her doctors say she has Lou Gehrig's disease.
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About One Family Tries To Save A Home...
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is ready for its massive boycott march toward Burger King corporate headquarters to get the fast-food chain to agree with their demands to improve wages and working conditions to farmworkers who harvest tomatoes.
After a statewide tour with peaceful protests and workshops, the organization’s national push will culminate Friday at the Burger King corporate headquarters in Miami.
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Immokalee farmworker rights group ready to protest today outside Burger King HQ...
Chronically injured workers – those who remain injured for four years or more – represent only 17 percent of all injured workers, but account for 45 percent of all workers' compensation prescriptions, and nearly 65 percent of all pharmacy costs.
This means that the pharmacy needs of the chronically injured worker represent 65 percent of the savings opportunity, according to PMSI, a Florida-based provider of pharmacy and specialty products for workers' compensation.
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Study Targets Prescription Savings in Workers' Comp for Chronically Injured...
Tallahassee, Fl. (AHN) - Top Florida officials decided to freeze a state investment pool of $14 billion on Thursday, after the financial panic-driven school boards and local governments started withdrawing billions of dollars from the fund.
However, now some school districts and investors are worried and stuck as they cannot access their money.
For more information, follow the link below.
The minimum wage in Florida will increase from $6.67 per hour to $6.79 per hour on January 1, 2008. The minimum wage applies to all employees in the state who are covered by the federal minimum wage. The definitions of “employer,” “employee,” and “wage” are the same as established under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Read More About Florida's minimum wage to go up to $6.79 January 1...
Two high-school students with disabilities were creating a short digital film on Wednesday with help from Challenger Learning Center program director Harry Hawbecker. Their faces serious and their eyes focused on the computer screen in front of them, they finally cracked smiles when they got to take a look at the short film they had created on planets and stars in outer space.
Jason Allen, 17, and Josh Baldwin, 14, were among more than 70 young people and job seekers with disabilities shadowing professionals as part of Florida Disability Mentoring Day. The young people were matched with business leaders, city officials and professors from places such as Volunteer Florida, the city of Tallahassee, the Florida A&M University School of Architecture and the Florida State University French Department.
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Florida Celebrates Disability Mentoring Day...
It's not just property-insurance companies that have earned special attention from state insurance regulators.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation also is pushing the "reject" button for other types of insurers operating in the state.
Regulators said Tuesday that Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty is calling for deeper rate cuts in workers' compensation insurance rates after rejecting a rate filing from the National Council on Compensation Insurance that would have saved Florida's employers more than $700 million.
For more information, follow the link below.
Read More About Regulators: Cut workers' comp rate even more...
TALLAHASSEE, FL (CompNewsNetwork) - —Investigators from the Department of Financial Services, Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Compliance, issued six Stop Work Orders (SWOs) during a surprise enforcement sweep last week of 39 contractor sites throughout Collier County. The SWOs were issued to contractors determined not to have workers’ compensation coverage for their employees.
Dubbed Operation Check Point, the sweep also involved inspectors and investigators from Collier County Licensing, who issued 11 citations, and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, who issued three citations and two Cease and Desist Orders, all for unlicensed activity.
Read More About Six Florida Contractors Cited In Surprise Sweep...
Efforts to reduce workers' compensation insurance by 16.5 percent could save Florida employers $650 million.
So says the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
And that could help construction firms hang on to more workers during slow times, while off-setting other expenses for white-collar firms.
For more information, follow the link below.
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Cavey and Barrett
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