Liberty Mutual Long-Term Disability Denials
The American Association of Justice ranks Liberty Mutual the 10th worst insurance company in the U.S. for bad faith claims denials, raising premiums, and denying insurance to those who need it the most. If you received a Liberty Mutual long-term disability denial, prepare for a fight. Big insurance companies will often do whatever they can to deny claims.
Insurance companies who deny claims in bad faith run the risk of facing a bad faith lawsuit. This, in turn, damages their credibility in the market place which can hurt profits. However, far too often insurance companies get away with defending tactics that put profits over their policyholders. A long-term disability lawyer at Robinson & Warncke can help you fight against these tactics.
What Is Liberty Mutual Insurance?
Liberty Mutual is a major U.S. insurance provider that rakes in over $38 billion annually. They provide health insurance, auto insurance policies, life insurance, workers’ compensation, and long- and short-term disability policies.
How a Long-Term Disability Lawyer Can Help
With many of the companies that lead the way in consumer complaints, you have a policy in place where the idea is to deny a claim, delay payments, and defend the denial. This makes the process as difficult as possible on policyholders. As a result, Liberty Mutual is now facing numerous lawsuits. And some of the plaintiffs are actually their own vendors. In some cases, they refused to renew contracts in vulnerable areas like Louisiana and Florida which are hit hardest by hurricanes, and coastal regions along the Northeast.
What does this mean for you? If you’ve received a denial letter in the mail or you’re planning to file a claim on your Liberty Mutual policy, you are likely in for a drawn-out process. The most likely sequence of events will include the insurance company:
- Repeatedly asking for more information, and then
- Denying the claim due to lack of information.
Meanwhile, they never gave you clear guidelines on what kind of information they required to satisfy the policy.
Common Complaints Against Liberty Mutual Insurance
The most common complaints against Liberty Mutual include:
- Claiming to have failed to receive documents you and your doctors claim they sent;
- Continually asking doctors for more and more information that was not outlined earlier in the claims process;
- Claiming they overpaid a claim to reduce their burden on a long-term policy;
- Sending the wrong amount of money to claimants;
- Delaying payment and denying recertification;
- Requiring claimants repay 100% of back pay after qualifying for SSDI;
- Not responding to communications from policyholders; and
- Claiming they contacted doctors they never actually contacted, then saying they mixed up your claim file with somebody else’s.
They’ve Even Faced Lawsuits From Their Own Agents
Not only has Liberty Mutual faced lawsuits from policyholders, they have also faced lawsuits from their own agents and vendors who claim that they were sued when Liberty Mutual denied claims in bad faith. Liberty Mutual was accused of collusion and bid-rigging for driving up the cost of premiums on their own policies leading to monopolies in certain areas.
Handling a Liberty Mutual Claim
Claims are filed online using Liberty Mutual’s portal on their webpage. You will require your company code to sign on as a new user. Once you do, you should find all the forms you need to file a claim. Once the claim is filed, you have 30 days to submit your medical records to prove you’re disabled.
My Claim Was Delayed
Liberty Mutual is required to provide a reason for any delays. Typically, the reason they give is simply that they need more information in order to proceed.
In some cases, they will request information that you know you’ve already sent. So, you go to your doctor and double check that they sent the information. They say yes. At this point, it will become apparent that the insurance company is giving you the run-around, biding their time, and hoping your claim falls through.
My Claim Was Denied
Again, Liberty Mutual must provide a legal reason why your claim was denied. Common reasons include the following:
- You don’t meet the definition of disability outlined in the policy;
- You haven’t provided the claims manager with sufficient medical evidence; or,
- Your disability isn’t covered under the terms of the policy.
Filing an Appeal
After denying your claim, Liberty Mutual will give you the option of filing an appeal. Here, you can address the specific reasons they gave for denying your claim.
It’s important to pay attention to the deadline for filing your appeal. A Liberty Mutual long-term disability denial lawyer can be a huge help in ensuring that you don’t make mistakes that could cause you to lose your chance to recover benefits.
A long-term disability attorney will ensure the process goes as efficiently as possible, and that your Liberty Mutual long-term disability denial is given the attention it deserves. We will review the terms of your policy and get all the information we need to satisfy those terms. And we will also ensure that claims manager can’t say that they never received the information.
To learn more about appeals, read our article Should I Handle My Own Appeal?
Contact Robinson & Warncke Today
At Robinson & Warncke, we specialize in long-term disability claims and have years of experience litigating against companies like Liberty Mutual who fail to provide their policyholders with the coverage they’re owed by contract. If you’re applying for LTD benefits, we can help manage your claim. We will comb through every line of the policy and ensure that your file is as complete as possible.
We have knowledge of the regulatory environment in which these companies operate and understand how even unimpeachable claims can be denied. These companies are counting on you not fighting back. If this saves them on even one policy, then their tactics have paid off. Don’t let that policy be yours.