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Toronto Personal Injury Law Blog

Maintaining Hope after Your Long-Term Disability Claim Has Been Denied

The Letter

As you sort through your mail, you see a letter from your insurer. You figure it probably relates to your application for long-term disability benefits, which you submitted several months back. You were expecting this notification letter to arrive soon, but now that it has, you can't help but feel scared. As you nervously open it, you realize that it contains bad news; your claim for long-term disability benefits has been denied.

Naturally, you feel confused and discouraged. For years, you faithfully paid your insurance premiums and assumed that if you became disabled in the future, long-term disability benefits would be available to you. You were sure that, if a future disability prevented you from working, you could rely on these benefits to help you meet your basic needs and provide for your family.

Although these feelings of confusion and sadness are understandable, you must not give up. Even though these denial letters are frequently sent to individuals applying for disability benefits, they do not mean that your case is closed or that you have no options. In fact, there are specific steps that you should take to fight the insurance company's denial of your long term disability benefit.

The Next Steps

First, you should read the letter again and identify the reason why your application has been denied. It may be that you forgot to submit part of the documentation that your insurer requires. If this is the case, you should immediately contact your insurer and submit the outstanding documents.

Unfortunately, however, these letters are often complex and difficult to understand, so you may wish to approach a lawyer. Because navigating this legal area can be difficult, you will want to contact a law firm and lawyer that has the expertise needed to provide you with accurate advice and the resources necessary to successfully take on complex long term disability cases.

Social Media Update

By Corey Sax

In the 2011 decision of Morabito v. DiLorenzo [2011] O.J. No. 5661, Justice Ramsay ruled that photographs taken before and after a motor vehicle accident and posted on a plaintiff's Facebook and MySpace page were relevant to motor vehicle litigation. The judge indicated that photographs taken after the accident show the effect of the injuries and whether and to what extent they affect an individuals enjoyment of life while photographs taken before the accident are relevant for comparison purposes. Ramsay J. further stated that Facebook status updates and postings to other people's walls do not necessarily meet the relevance test.

The case law in this area has evolved to the point where the contents of a Facebook page are treated just like any other (electronic) document. The early Orders that led to wider potential disclosure, and broad requests from defendants, have been replaced by Orders that are more measured and consider the issues as framed by the pleadings, the specific request made at examinations for discovery, the foundation for such requests, and the obligation of a party to prepare a comprehensive Affidavit of Documents. Counsel for plaintiffs need to take the time to review the contents of the client's Facebook page to determine if there are relevant pages therein that ought to be disclosed in an Affidavit of Documents. Counsel for defendants need to lay the proper foundation at the examination for discovery in order to support the request for production of Facebook material, or the request for a further and better Affidavit of Documents. In order to avoid multiple motions and multiple examinations for discovery, counsel should turn their minds to these issues at an early stage, disclose those documents that are relevant, and be prepared to answer relevant questions during the examination for discovery process.

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