{"id":3306,"date":"2020-07-15T14:01:40","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T14:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nolfinal.wpengine.com\/?p=3306"},"modified":"2023-06-12T16:04:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T21:04:37","slug":"why-its-important-to-tell-your-story-to-the-long-term-disability-insurance-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/why-its-important-to-tell-your-story-to-the-long-term-disability-insurance-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Why It\u2019s Important To Tell Your Story To The Long Term Disability Insurance Company"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>When you\u2019re going through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/practice-areas\/long-term-disability-insurance-erisa-lawyer\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"3218\">long-term disability<\/a> application process the insurance company will typically send you an application that has a few pages of questions for you. One of the questions is, \u201cWhat is it about your condition(s) that keeps you from being able to work?\u201d There might be two lines for you to fill in why you can\u2019t work, which is not sufficient. The only other place that you might explain to them is during the interview process.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IGIZDekeezw?feature=oembed\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Interview Process<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>During the application process, the insurance company will typically ask to perform a phone interview or send you a written questionnaire. They\u2019ll ask you to identify some of the problems that you have as a result of your condition, but that structure doesn\u2019t really give you a good opportunity to tell your whole story. And if you think about it, how motivated is the insurance company to ask you a series of questions that are designed to really outlay the types of problems that you\u2019re having that keep you from being able to work? They\u2019re really not. So you need to reclaim the power in terms of establishing your case, and you need to tell your story in such a way that the insurance company is able to recognize why it is that you\u2019re unable to work. That\u2019s why one of the most important components to an appeal, I believe, is your story.<\/p>\r\n<h2>What Do We Mean by Your Story?<\/h2>\r\n<p>What you want to do is really lay it out for the insurance company in a way that they can understand why it is you can\u2019t do work activity. And you do that by showing what kind of difficulties you have in your daily life.<\/p>\r\n<p>Let me give you an example: let\u2019s say I have a client who has a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/practice-areas\/long-term-disability-insurance-erisa-lawyer\/medical-conditions\/back-pain\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"1607\">severe back pain disorder<\/a>. They have multiple\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/practice-areas\/long-term-disability-insurance-erisa-lawyer\/medical-conditions\/herniated-discs\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"1516\">herniated discs<\/a>, and it really impacts what they do. For example, they can\u2019t lift and carry more than five pounds across the room. Due to extreme pain, they have to lie down several times a day, for several hours each time, to relieve the pressure and pain in their back. That\u2019s the kind of limitation that we want to set forth in the sworn statement.<\/p>\r\n<h2>How Do I Describe My Limitations?<\/h2>\r\n<p>I can tell you that when people do write letters that kind of set forth limitations that they have to the insurance company, they tend to be very basic. They tend not to be very detailed. They don\u2019t identify specific levels of impairment. They tend to appeal more to emotions saying, \u201cLook, I\u2019ve worked hard my whole life \u201cand I just can\u2019t do it anymore.\u201d But you can see how a statement like that, while it is designed to appeal to one\u2019s sympathy or empathy, it doesn\u2019t really get into the nitty-gritty detail about why. How long can you do work activity? Is it 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour? How long do you need to rest after 30 minutes of activity? That type of identification of impairment is extremely different from saying, \u201cI\u2019d be working if I could.\u201d We help our clients identify their levels of impairment and set them forth in a way that the insurance company can use to properly evaluate your claim.<\/p>\r\n<h2>Disputing Surveillance Video in Your Statement<\/h2>\r\n<p>Another reason why we like sworn statements or affidavits is it also gives you an opportunity to address some comments that were maybe made by the insurance company in the denial letter if you believe that there are factual inaccuracies. If the insurance company did surveillance on you then you can address some of what the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/types-of-surveillance\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"3230\">surveillance video<\/a>\u00a0shows.<\/p>\r\n<p>The insurance company has probably conducted a lot of surveillance, and they\u2019ve also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/social-media-used-to-deny-claims\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"3229\">looked into your social media profile including Facebook, Twitter, and others<\/a>. They will probably have a printout of some of your Facebook posts. If you have Twitter posts and things like that in your claim file, this will be your opportunity to explain what you meant by some of your posts. Or if they don\u2019t tell the whole story, you can give a little background as to why you were able to do certain things on certain days and address what\u2019s in your file.<\/p>\r\n<h2>Can I Submit More Than One Statement?<\/h2>\r\n<p>You may do the same thing with co-workers, friends, family members, former supervisors or bosses. If you can get statements from them as well, that can be hugely influential in establishing additional evidence to support your case.<\/p>\r\n<h2>Can I Tell My Story If We Go to Trial?<\/h2>\r\n<p>As you\u2019ll learn from other articles and videos on this website, your ability to introduce evidence if your case needs to go to trial in an ERISA case is extremely limited. In fact, you won\u2019t be allowed to testify. Your friends and family won\u2019t be allowed to testify. Your doctors won\u2019t be allowed to testify. So the reality of the situation is this sworn statement is your way of testifying in your case. That\u2019s why we even do these in a sworn statement or affidavit format where it\u2019s under penalty of perjury that our clients are swearing as to their limitations because, again, this is a way for the judge to see how your conditions have impacted your daily life. You can see how by putting it forth in a sworn statement document or an affidavit, it\u2019s controlling the way that it\u2019s set forth to the insurance company, and it\u2019s going into a lot more detail than the insurance company did when they asked you about your limitation at the very beginning of the case.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Ortiz Law Firm Will Tell Your Story<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>We typically do it in the form of an affidavit. We\u2019ll send our clients a detailed questionnaire asking them about:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Their daily life and what kind of problems they have in their daily life;<\/li>\r\n<li>How long they can do certain activities before they need to take a break; and<\/li>\r\n<li>How long do they need to take a break before they can resume those activities?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>We also go over a series of questions that are tailored towards our client\u2019s particular medical condition that are meant to identify the types of problems they have that prevents them from working.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>If you\u2019d like to talk to us more about this, then I encourage you to give us a call at\u00a0<strong><a href=\"tel:8883218131\">(888) 321-8131<\/a><\/strong>. If you\u2019d like additional information about the long term disability process, then I encourage you to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/resources.nickortizlaw.com\/free-ltd-book\">download a free copy of a book that I wrote called \u201cThe Top 10 Mistakes That Will Destroy Your Long Term Disability Claim\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you\u2019re going through the long-term disability application process the insurance company will typically send you an application that has a few pages of questions for you. One of the questions is, \u201cWhat is it about your condition(s) that keeps you from being able to work?\u201d There might be two lines for you to fill &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}