A denied long term disability claim is a dispute about an insurance policy. It is not a dispute about where you live. We act for denied and terminated claimants across Ontario, from Durham Region to Northumberland, the Kawarthas, York Region and beyond.
Why your postcode does not decide your claim
Your insurer is not local to you. Group disability policies are administered from a handful of head offices, and the person deciding your file has never been to your town. The dispute turns on the policy wording, the medical evidence and the claim file, none of which depends on geography.
The practical consequence is that most of a disability file runs on documents. The policy, the claim file we obtain from the insurer, your medical records, and the opinions of the doctors who are already treating you. Those arrive by post and email wherever you happen to live.
How a file actually runs at a distance
- The first meeting is by phone or video if that is easier, or in person at Whitby or in our Toronto office if you would rather.
- Obtaining the policy and the claim file happens in writing. Nothing about it requires you to travel.
- Medical evidence comes from the doctors already treating you, wherever they are.
- Examinations for discovery and mediation are routinely conducted by video, and have been for years. We do also travel to accompany clients in person when asked.
- If a matter does go to trial, it is heard where the action is commenced, in the court seat closest to your residence.
We will always tell you when something genuinely needs you in a room, and it is less often than most people expect.
What we act on
- An application for long term disability benefits that has been denied
- Benefits that were approved and then cut off
- A denial at the change from own occupation to any occupation
- Denials based on a pre-existing condition exclusion
- Claims for mental health conditions, chronic pain and fatigue, where the insurer says the evidence is subjective
- Surveillance and social media used to justify a termination
What this costs
Initial consultations are free. If your insurer approves the appeal, or approves you after a demand letter from us, before any claim is filed, the fee is zero. That is published on our fee schedule and it is not a promotion.
For qualified long term disability claims with considerable ongoing benefits at stake, we will often reduce our contingency fee to 25%. Whether that applies depends on the claim, and we will tell you where you stand before you retain us, in writing.
Our complete fee schedule, by stage of the case, is on the Fair Fees page.
Read more
- Long term disability: the main page
- Your claim was denied: what to do first
- Approved, then cut off
- What “any occupation” means
- The figures that change each year
Speak to a lawyer about a long COVID disability claim
Initial consultations are free. Our fee schedule is published in full, by stage of the case, on our Fair Fees page. Call 905-409-2438, send a text, message us on WhatsApp, or use the contact form.
Steven Polak is licensed as a lawyer in Ontario and practises with Lerners LLP at 123 Athol Street, Whitby.