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Hartford

NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED. CHICAGO STRONG. LONG TERM DISABILITY FIRM

Bartolic Law handles Long Term Disability cases at all stages, from filing a claim to lawsuits under ERISA § 502(a). We are who the most discerning clients hire when an insurer denies their claim, and the one they wish they had when another firm loses their appeal and abandons the case. We are Innovative, Authentic, Compassionate, Transparent and Chicago strong. Bartolic Law is nationally renowned for our Innovative work:

Hartford Denials

In one of our long-term disability cases, Hartford conducted surveillance of our client walking to a grocery store, and terminated benefits contending the activity was above the client’s reported limitations. The client suffered from post spinal fusion surgery for lumbar degenerative disc disease, with radiculopathy radiating down to the knee. The client was also taking prescribed narcotic pain medications. We interviewed the client on video talking through the surveillance footage, showing the grocery store was blocks from home. We included a map of the route to visualize how short the distance was. The video also showed our client sitting and frequently needing to change positions, wholly consistent with results of a functional capacity evaluation and opinions of the client’s doctors. The result: claim paid. In another long-term disability case we turned around, Hartford referred to surveillance showing our client carrying a shopping bag and portraying the client as able to lift and carry heavy items. We performed a video interview of the client while watching the surveillance footage and the client narrating it. We showed the client explaining the shopping bag had a single item in it: a bottle of perfume purchased for a niece’s birthday. Combined with tests, medical opinions, and records, we had the client demonstrate the ability to carry a bag with a perfume bottle in it, but struggling with heavier objects due to Rheumatoid Arthritis. Outcome: claim paid. If Hartford denied or terminated your long-term disability benefits, call Bartolic Law.

We Handle Hartford Claims at All Stages

Bartolic Law has turned many Hartford long-term disability denials into payments. Hartford underwrites many group long-term disability plans as the insurer, and serves as a third-party claim administrator for some self-funded disability plans. Hartford is equally aggressive in its claim handling regardless of its role in the review, though. Hartford is more active than many other insurance companies in using surveillance to portray you as having greater functionality than you really do. It often combines this approach with requesting you attend an independent medical examination, as it will then know a day and time you must leave the house and it will film you on your trip there and back, as well as days before and/or after the examination. Hartford may then contend your activity or movements on the surveillance were inconsistent with your reported limitations. They often do not watch the surveillance video, though, and just repeat what an investigator (motivated to be hired again) wrote describing the video.

SUCCESSES

Our Areas Of Practice

We Turn Denials Into Payments

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