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

At this festive time of year, when so many of us are struggling in economic despair, let us not forget all that we still have.  In the spirit of the Christmas season, let us try to put aside our worries, if only for one day, and rejoice for the things that matter most - the happiness and health of our families.

For the those among us who are not working due to accidents or disease, may 2009 bring you a return to work and good health.  The attorneys at Turley, Redmond & Rosasco have dedicated our professional lives to representing injured and disabled claimants with ERISA and private long term disability claims, Social Security disability claims and workers' compensation claims.  May 2009 bring happier, healthier and more prosperous days to the clients we serve.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

According to an article in Newsday today regarding the LIRR disability retirement scandal, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has now issued subpoenas to four long term disability insurance companies and five Long Island doctors who predominately examined LIRR workers.  This is in the wake of recent reports indicating that a whopping 98% of Long Island Railroad workers retire with disability pensions.  The fact that white collar LIRR employees were getting occupational disability pensions tells you how broken this system really is.

The long term disability insurance companies have been identified by the New York Times in their ongoing railroad disability scandal series as First Unum Life Insurance Company, AFLAC, Transamerica Financial Life Insurance Company and CUNA Mutual.  It is possible that these disability insurance companies may have been victims of the broken Railroad Retirement Board disability decisions if they were required to pay out on policies if the LIRR employee was granted a disability retirement pension.  It is not often on this blog that you will see me refer to long term disability insurers as potential victims, but it seems they might have been in this case.

As a disability lawyer for almost 20 years on Long Island, I am proud to say that I have never represented any LIRR employee in a Railroad Retirement Board disability claim.  It appears they didn't need me -  all they had to do to get disability benefits was to raise their hand!  Unfortunately, abuses like this tarnish those LIRR employees with legitimate disability claims, of which I am sure there are many.  

I predict this story is only going to get  bigger, and will eventually lead to major reform of the Long Island Rail Road workers disability system.  One simple solution would be to simply abolish the Railroad Retirement Board, and to include LIRR employees in the Social Security Disability system, which generally requires the claimant to be "disabled from all work", not just their "regular occupation".   This would also help LIRR workers since Social Security disability taxes withheld from their paycheck are far less than the railroad system taxes they now pay.  Perhaps Senators Schumer and Clinton can propose this easy fix.   However this broken system is reformed, the days of automatic disability pensions for LIRR workers are over.  Now they will have to be truly disabled.

Welcome to the newly designed New York Disability Law Blog!  As you will notice, I changed the official title of the blog from "The Disabled Worker Law Blog" to the  more informational "New York Disability Law Blog".  This is in keeping with the blog's purpose of providing useful information and insight regarding disability claims to fellow attorneys and the general public. 

To this end, I am excited to announce the creation of the blog's "Disability Law Library" which will be continually added to and updated.  I hope that this will eventually become the first place attorneys and claimant's turn to when researching disability claims and legal issues.  Still in it's formative stages, the library will have sections on long term disability and ERISA claims, Social Security  disability, New York workers' compensation, civil service disability pensions, scaffold /ladder /construction site lawsuits and a new section on the unfortunate expanding area of veterans' disability claims.

In addition, in 2007 we hope to do a better job collaborating with fellow bloggers such as Jonathan Ginsberg and his excellent Social Security Disability Radio Blog.  Please feel free to comment about the new design and let me know how the New York Disability Law Blog can better serve your needs.  Talk to you soon.

If you work for a public employer ( state, county, city, town, village, school district etc.) and are "permanently incapacitated from performing the duties of your position", you may be entitled to a Disability Pension from the New York State Retirement System. This claim can be in addition to benefits you might receive from Workers' Compensation and/or Social Security.