phone (818)805-3161 erisa@erisarights.com fax
(818)805-3163
It starts when your employee benefits are
denied.
As more and more people become
dependent on the health, disability, and life insurance that is
provided through their employment, more
and more people will have their disability, health, and life
insurance benefits denied them. Many will walk away
from the denial and never challenge it. Others
will seek the advise of lawyers that do not realize that the matter
is governed by a Federal law known as
ERISA or, if they know about ERISA, they do not fully understand how
it works.
We are experienced ERISA lawyers dedicated to
representing people who have been denied employee benefits under
their employer's ERISA disability,
ERISA health insurance, ERISA life insurance or
severance benefit plans.
We differ from other law firms practicing ERISA law in several crucial ways:
1. All we do is ERISA benefits law. We don't do bad faith insurance claims, social security claims, elder law, or any other kind of law.
2. We don't practice ERISA benefits law, we make ERISA law. Just about every brief seeking disability or health benefits filed in the courts of the Ninth Circuit cites at least one of our cases. Almost every decision from those courts cites to at least one of our cases. We are at the cutting edge of ERISA. What that means to you is that we are willing to go the extra mile, to argue that new theory so that you can get the benefits you need and disserve.
3. We do not employ law clerks or paralegals. We do all the work, from handling your appeal, legal research, writing the briefs, and arguing in the courts. We do it ourselves so that we know it's done right.
4. Your case is handled by one of us alone; the same lawyer does all the work regarding your claim from the moment you hire us until the moment your claim is finally resolved. The lawyer dedicated to your claim, either Chuck or Paul, is available to answer your questions and always returns telephone calls.
5. Finally, our pricing usually results in you paying us nothing or very close to it. We never seek a fee for future benefits we may get for you. Our fee, in most cases, is paid by the ERISA plan that has wrongly denied you your benefits. If we are not successful, since we work on a contingence arrangement, you owe us nothing other than costs. We have specialized in ERISA benefits law since 1990.
We have never represented an insurance company, employer, union, or employee benefit plan against a working person denied his/her employee benefits. We have the experience, knowledge, desire, and confidence that you need to win if you have been denied employee benefits.
1. All we do is ERISA benefits law. We don't do bad faith insurance claims, social security claims, elder law, or any other kind of law.
2. We don't practice ERISA benefits law, we make ERISA law. Just about every brief seeking disability or health benefits filed in the courts of the Ninth Circuit cites at least one of our cases. Almost every decision from those courts cites to at least one of our cases. We are at the cutting edge of ERISA. What that means to you is that we are willing to go the extra mile, to argue that new theory so that you can get the benefits you need and disserve.
3. We do not employ law clerks or paralegals. We do all the work, from handling your appeal, legal research, writing the briefs, and arguing in the courts. We do it ourselves so that we know it's done right.
4. Your case is handled by one of us alone; the same lawyer does all the work regarding your claim from the moment you hire us until the moment your claim is finally resolved. The lawyer dedicated to your claim, either Chuck or Paul, is available to answer your questions and always returns telephone calls.
5. Finally, our pricing usually results in you paying us nothing or very close to it. We never seek a fee for future benefits we may get for you. Our fee, in most cases, is paid by the ERISA plan that has wrongly denied you your benefits. If we are not successful, since we work on a contingence arrangement, you owe us nothing other than costs. We have specialized in ERISA benefits law since 1990.
We have never represented an insurance company, employer, union, or employee benefit plan against a working person denied his/her employee benefits. We have the experience, knowledge, desire, and confidence that you need to win if you have been denied employee benefits.
ERISA is an uncommon field of law and
most lawyers do not know how it works or what is
needed to prevail on behalf of a
client. If you have been told by other lawyers that your claim
is meritless, unwinable, or not worth
enough money, the odds are that they are wrong. If you think
that your employer or the insurance company has cheated
you, you are probably right. Don't give
up! Fight back! Don't walk away from your claim without
giving us a chance to help
you.
Contact us for a free
consultation. Regardless of what other attorneys have
told you, your claim is probably worth
more than enough for us to help you. We will handle your case
on either a contingency or hourly basis; the choice
is usually yours.
So, what is
ERISA?
If you are entitled to
disability, health, life insurance, pension, severance, or almost
any other type of benefit because of your
employment or union membership, your rights to those benefits are
governed by a federal statute entitled the
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 --
ERISA.
Many employers set up employee
benefits plans that provide benefits to
employees in the form of disability insurance, life
insurance, medical insurance, severance
benefits and pensions. These employee benefits are funded
either through the purchase of insurance policies or through
the establishment of trusts, paid for by the
employer or both the employer and the employee. If a trust is
established and too much money is paid out
in employee benefits, the employer has to replace the missing
money. Successful claims by
employees diminish the trust's money and, if there is an insurance
company involved, cause a loss of profit to the
insurance company.
This is where ERISA comes in.
ERISA is perhaps the biggest con job affecting
the American worker since the Great Depression. ERISA, in the
guise of protecting the worker's rights to
benefits, replaced all state laws that effectively did the job
before 1974. Under the laws of most
states, a wrongful denial of benefits can result in a jury verdict
awarding an employee the denied benefits,
damages for emotional distress, and punitive damages. Under
ERISA, there is no right to a jury trial, and the most that an
employee who has been wrongly denied
benefits can receive are the benefits that were denied.
What has an insurance company or employee
benefit trust got to lose from denying a claim? If they are
sued, the most they can lose is what they
would have had to pay in the first place. Prior to
ERISA, an insurance company had to think long and
hard before denying benefits because of the possibility
of emotional distress and punitive damages. Now, because of
ERISA, a denial is a no brainier.
There is nothing to lose!
As if to further encourage the practice
of denying employee benefit claims, ERISA says
that, in most cases, the insurance company's or employee benefit
trust's decision to deny benefits will not
be overturned, even if wrong, unless it can be shown to be arbitrary
and capricious.
If you are about to apply for benefits
under an employee benefit plan or have already
applied for such benefits and have had them denied, be aware that
your are either entering or already in the
middle of a legal mine field. At risk are important benefits
that you worked for and that your future
may depend on. If you do not wish to walk the mine field
alone, contact us. We have been doing ERISA
work for many years.
If you have a claim, we will represent
you, in most cases, on a contingency fee
basis. We know the traps, the pitfalls, the deadlines, and the
strategies that you need to be
successful. The sooner into the benefit claim process that you
get to us, the better chance you have for
a successful outcome. ERISA fights are uphill battles for
the employee. While we cannot guarantee that
you will win with our help, we can at least make the playing
field more level.
If you have been denied benefits based
on "mental illness" or "mental and nervous
condition" limitations, contact us. If you have been denied
benefits because of a "lack of objective
evidence" or because you have CFS or Fibromyalgia, we can probably
help you.
Don't give up. Fight back.
Don't let them steal the benefits you worked
for.
LEGAL
DISCLAIMER: The information at this web site is for advertising
and general information purposes. This information is
not intended to be legal advice for you to rely on. We recommend you
contact the firm for specific questions about
employee benefits including employee disability benefits and medical
benefits.
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