ERISA Attorney Evanston

If you’re having problems getting your benefits under a plan provided by your employer, you may need an ERISA lawyer. Your employer may supply surgical, hospital, or mental health care benefits, a retirement plan, long-term disability income through an insurance agreement, severance benefits, or a legal services or child care assistance plan for you and your dependent children. If you applied for benefits or even requested info about a plan like this and were rejected, a lawyer who has experience with ERISA may be able to help you.

What Is ERISA?

ERISA is the short name for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (also “the Act”), the federal law that oversees all private employer-provided employee benefit plans. Government-sponsored and church-sponsored plans are usually exempt from ERISA. However, other laws, including the Internal Revenue Code, do apply to those plans. Particularly, ERISA applies to “employee welfare benefit plans” and “employee pension plans” established and maintained by a private employer.

How Can an ERISA Lawyer Help?

Compared to other areas of the law in the US, few attorneys practice in the area of ERISA. 

When a benefit claim has been denied, your ERISA lawyer may review the plan’s decision and other relevant documents and draft an appeal letter with supporting evidence arguing that the benefits denial should be overturned and benefits given or reinstated. If the appeal is unsuccessful, we can bring an action in federal court asking the court to decide if the plan administrator’s judgment was “arbitrary and capricious” and requesting that the benefits are granted and attorney’s fees and costs awarded to the participant. 

Other circumstances in which our ERISA attorneys might assist you include when you: 

• Think your retirement benefits were wrongly calculated; 
• Were offered a severance benefit and aren’t sure if you are giving up other important benefits or privileges by accepting it; 
• Were divorced and have privileges to your ex-spouse’s retirement benefits but need a lawyer; 
• Were getting an early pension under a union plan, but your benefits were stopped because you supposedly work in a related trade contrary to plan regulations; 
• Were getting disability benefits, and the plan suddenly decided you are no longer disabled and terminated your benefit payments; 
• You are not getting info about your benefits after requesting them or do not understand your rights under a benefit plan.

Need Help? Speak with an ERISA Attorney in Evanston

If you have a problem or question about your employee benefits, contact us today to obtain a free case consultation. Bartolic Law is Evanston’s premier ERISA employee benefits and employment law firm. We represent employees, former employees, and employee benefits plan participants on a personal, collective, and class basis in employee benefits (ERISA) litigation and all other kinds of employment disputes. We concentrate on vindicating our clients’ rights and securing the employee benefits and compensation they are entitled to. We give legal counsel to our clients on other issues and are available to help or find someone who can help our clients in any way we can.