The New York Disability Law Blog : New York Disability Lawyer & Attorney : Turley, Redmond & Rosasco : Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Nassau, Suffolk, Bronx, Staten Island

I will be speaking at the NOSSCR Disability Attorney Conference on May 13, 2009 in Washington, DC on the topic of: Winning Long Term Disability Claims at the Initial Level. As those of you who read this blog regularly know, I am a big ( must do, mandatory, stupid if you don't) proponent of at least consulting with a long term disability lawyer  prior to filing for LTD on your own.  The deceptively simple process is a minefield for the already disabled novice, and proceeding without at least some legal advice might jeopardize your economic security.  

A simple one hour consultation with a long term disability attorney (either in the office or by phone) can teach you how to avoid the top five deadly mistakes which will allow the disability insurance company to deny you claim the first time around.  I file long term disability denial appeals every day. These appeals can be costly and take months to resolve, all while you are struggling to pay the mortgage and your children's college tuition.  You do not want to appeal a claim you could have won with the right assistance during the initial application level.  Below is an a description of my presentation to the Social Security disability lawyers in attendance:

• There was once a time when many of us told clients to apply on their own for SSDI, and call us only if denied. Today, many of us help our clients with the initial SSDI applications stage. Even more so than with SSDI claimants, you should be helping your clients strategize and prepare a bullet-proof application in the adversarial arena of ERISA long term disability claims. This session will explore ways to overcome and avoid the inherent traps and pitfalls used by long term disability insurers to deny claims at the initial application level, thereby preventing costly and time-consuming appeals for claimants.

NOSSCR is the premier disability lawyer association in the country with over 3000 members.  It has been an honor to be a member of their Board of Directors representing the New York and Connecticut area for the last three years.  More than 1000 disability claim advocates are expected at the upcoming Washington, DC conference.  Hopefully, many will attend my lecture to refine their advocacy skills when it comes to long term disability claims.  Hope to see you there! 

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Yada Yada Yada! The final installment of the NY Times series on the New York Workers' Compensation system is much like the first installment - a regurgitation of anecdotal pablum with quotes from disgruntled  workers and employers.  Again - a major disappointment after an 18 month investigation of the entire state-wide system. 

Where are the stories about the overwhelming majority of injured workers who sail through the system with few problems receiving all the benefits they deserve?  I guess such facts don't sell papers!

It seems that the reporters who wrote this series never truly understood the full extent of the mission of the New York State Workers' Compensation Board as an administrative agency processing hundreds of thousands of individual cases at any one time.  They never truly understood that the Workers' Compensation system was not created in a vacuum - and that, believe it or not - society actually benefits by having a little less safety in the workplace.

Professor Robert Smith, the distinguished labor economist at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, once taught me that employers are competitively better off paying workers' compensation premiums rather than trying to make their workplaces as safe as possible.  The cost of assuring 100% safety in the workplace would be astronomical and almost certainly impossible.  The cost of assuring 90% safety in the workplace would be prohibitive. 

Before employers ever went down that Utopian road, they would make a fast dash to China.  Therefore, a sometimes imperfect, but  far more often successful workers' compensation system in New York is not only necessary - but desired.

How many of the grumbling employers quoted in the final installment employ "safety managers" in their plants? It seems that the "Safety Bucks" games that some employers use are a way of giving lip service to true worker safety.  Unfortunately, the New York Times has  given similar lip service to an important topic while venturing into the New York Post realm of reporting with silly tag-lines like "Meatball Justice". 

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As you can tell from reading my post yesterday, I was not overly impressed by the first installment of the NY Times series on the Workers' Compensation system in New York.  I thought it was high on editorial comment, yet lacking in actual analysis of facts that might lead to to productive solutions. 

In addition, I still can't understand why they used the tag-line "Meatball Justice".  I understand one person described the hearing process as such, but the Times failed to explain why they believe it accurately describes the hearing process.   After all, what's wrong with meatballs?  My Italian grandma made better meatballs than half the steaks served in New York restaurants!  The NY Times obviously meant the tag-line to be derogatory, but that's just the NY  Times'  liberal elitism showing through.  Injured workers don't want  "Champagne Justice".  They simply want to get to the "meat" of the matter, get the medical treatment they need, and return to work. 

But that was yesterday's news. Today , the NY Times regains some credibility by exposing the flawed so called "independent medical examination" within the workers' compensation system - and they do a good job at getting to the heart of the abuses.  At the top of the list of abusers are the IME "brokers" who not only set up the exams, but often change the actual doctor reports and sign the doctors' names using signature stamps.  The video which shows an actual IME examination and the doctor's explanation for errors in his reports is a must see, maddening classic. 

So what's the solution?  First - Attorney General Andrew Cuomo must launch an investigation into this fraud.  Second - the New York State Office of Professional Misconduct  (OPMC) must strip the medical licenses of the the worst IME doctors.  Any claimant who gets an exam similar to the one in the Times'  video should file a formal complaint with OPMC against that IME doctor.  Finally, I would bar insurance companies from contracting with the shady  IME brokers .  The brokers are making millions doing the dirty work for the insurance companies, giving the insurance companies plausible deniability of this fraud. 

Today's article, including the must see video footage online, came much closer to hitting the mark than yesterday.  Perhaps the final installment on the New York Workers' Compensation system will hit the bull's eye.

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