As part of your benefits package, you may be entitled to short-term and long-term disability insurance. Your employer may have a group policy from an insurance company such as Manulife, Sun Life, Great-West Life, and Desjardins. These policies are for the benefit of employees and are designed to provide you with short-term disability (STD) and long-term disability (LTD) income replacement in the event you can no longer work.

Too often insurance companies deny legitimate disability claims. The most common reasons are “insufficient medical information” and a “lack of objective medical evidence”. Other reasons include a pre-existing disability being excluded and exclusions relating to drug and alcohol abuse.

Insurance companies may also deny a claim after conducting surveillance or obtaining prejudicial information from your employer or your physician(s). You can also be deemed ineligible for coverage because of technicalities in the policy such as insufficient hours worked or a failure to complete insurance forms.

Even when claims are initially approved, you may have your benefits prematurely terminated. Insurance companies can often unfairly harass you to undergo a rehabilitation program or commence a graduated return to work program despite clear evidence of total disability. Many claims are also terminated at the change of definition mark (typically after benefits have been paid for two years) on the grounds that you can work in other types of occupations.

If your disability claim is denied or your benefits are terminated for any reason, you may have strong legal grounds to challenge the disability insurance company in court. You have the power to fight back. A disability lawyer can commence legal action against the insurance company to pursue your disability benefits as well as damages for bad faith conduct.