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Although lawyers are often referred to as “officers of the court,” in reality, most legal matters are resolved outside the courtroom, and many practicing attorneys have no idea how to handle litigation. The legal world is highly specialized.

If you are involved in a dispute about your private disability insurance policy, there’s a good chance that you will be able to resolve the conflict through negotiation out of court. But what if that doesn’t work? What if your case needs to be litigated?

On the insurance company’s side, their transactional attorneys will turn the matter over to a trained litigation team. If you are working with an attorney who knows how to succeed in disability insurance litigation, your attorney will keep you prepared for the ordeal. If you are not represented by an attorney or your lawyer isn’t experienced in litigation, you may quickly be overwhelmed.

Let’s review what happens when a disability claim needs to go to court to see how and why litigation experience is so critical.

Litigation Begins Long Before Your Trial Date

Taking a case to trial involves more work outside of court than inside. Although the focus is on making the best case for the judge, it is the preparation leading up to a trial that determines whether the case will succeed. Much of that preparation occurs during the discovery process.

Attorneys who are well-versed in litigation techniques know how to use sophisticated discovery tactics to gain key points of information to support their claims. The most common discovery tools are:

• Interrogatories
• Requests for production
• Requests for admission
• Depositions

All attorneys learn about these in law school, but learning how to use them effectively takes years of intense practice. An attorney who understands how to uncover key facts through discovery puts their client ahead because knowledge is power in a lawsuit.

Litigators who work for insurance companies not only know how to make use of discovery tools, but they have also been known to instruct other insurance company representatives in tactics designed to get claimants to say and do things that can be used against them to deny their claims. To give yourself a fair chance of success against these practices, it is important to work with a disability insurance lawyer who understands insurance claims not only from the administrative side but also from a litigation perspective.

Laying the Groundwork for Litigation

At Seltzer & Associates, we succeed in achieving a positive outcome for our clients outside of court in most cases. But we are always laying the groundwork to succeed in litigation if necessary.

What does that mean? It means that we gather and preserve evidence to prove every facet of a claim so that if we need to demonstrate the merits to the judge, we are more than ready. It also means that we carefully monitor every bit of correspondence involved in the claim to ensure that there are no vague terms that could be argued against us later.

Further, it means that we are aware of the unique facets of the court where the case would be heard if it were to go to trial. We know the terms of art that resonate with the judge and how the court has ruled in the past on the fine points of this area of law.

When a decision is made to move the matter to court, some actions need to be taken very quickly. We stay prepared so that we will be ready to strike fast if necessary.

Time Limits

State statutes set a time limit within which a lawsuit must be filed, and this is known as the statute of limitations. The time limit varies depending on the type of legal action involved.

With insurance disability claims cases, however, attorneys need to be concerned with an additional time limit set by the insurance company. Buried deep in the bowels of your insurance policy, the company has established a time frame within which you must file a lawsuit or lose the right to pursue your case in court. The insurance policy terms are essentially the terms of a contract between you and the insurance company, so you are bound by the terms you “agreed” to when you purchased your policy.

So, when negotiating with the insurance company to obtain benefits for a client, we always monitor the limitation periods so that if the claim needs to go to court, we won’t miss any critical deadlines.

Deciding on Causes of Action

When we file a lawsuit against an insurance company, we need to explain to the judge precisely what laws the company has violated and how those violations occurred. Generally, there is always a claim based on breach of contract. We explain how the insurance company violated the terms of the policy and, therefore, breached their contract with the insured. Specifically, to succeed in demonstrating breach of contract, we need to present evidence to confirm that:

• The policyholder worked in a specific professional position at the time of the onset of disability
• The policyholder suffered from a medical condition
• The policyholder received medical care as required under the terms of the disability policy
• The policyholder’s medical condition prevented them from performing the required duties of their occupation such that they suffered economic loss as a result
• The insurance company was provided with proof necessary to evaluate the claim for disability benefits

In addition, we will point out any instances where the insurance company acted unreasonably, such as taking an unusually long time to respond to submissions.

Depending on the circumstances, we may be able to allege other causes of action as well. We might show that the insurance company should be liable for acting in bad faith, committing consumer fraud, and even intentionally inflicting emotional distress on you.

Although these arguments may be presented orally in court, they will be written out in detail in the initial pleadings. The judge reads these before the actual trial, and when they are prepared properly and thoughtfully, they can make the case right from the start.

Petition for Declaratory Judgment

Many times, attorneys involved in litigation regarding a disability insurance claim will file a motion for declaratory judgment, asking the court to rule on a specific issue. This can help narrow the focus of the overall litigation. For instance, if the parties disagree about the meaning of a specific term in the policy, they might ask the court to rule on just that issue.

A petition for declaratory judgment might be filed separately or as part of the main legal case.

Seltzer & Associates Knows How to Succeed in Private Disability Insurance Claim Litigation

While it generally works best to resolve disputes about private disability insurance claims out of court, sometimes the only way to achieve the right outcome is to shift into litigation. At Selzer & Associates, our legal team excels in all phases of the disability claims legal process, from filing and handling initial claims, through negotiation, discovery, and trial. We understand private disability insurance claims in a way few firms can match.

If you need to take an insurance dispute to court or just want to know more about how the process might work with your disability claim, we invite you to schedule a complimentary consultation. To get started, call 888-699-4222 or contact us through our website.