That qui tam (or whistle blower) lawsuit claiming that UNUM , an insurance company which writes Long Term Disability (LTD) insurance and administers LTD plans for employers, was doing something abusive by forcing the people to whom it was paying LTD to file claims for Social Security disability benefits has been remanded by the First Circuit Court of Appeals. A new trial was ordered because the District Court had excluded evidence that the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) does essentially the same thing as UNUM.
By the way, retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter sat on the panel hearing this case. I hope he was more alert than retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell was when I had him on a panel hearing a Social Security case I had appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals many years ago.
By the way, retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter sat on the panel hearing this case. I hope he was more alert than retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell was when I had him on a panel hearing a Social Security case I had appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals many years ago.
3 comments:
Undoubtedly, UNUM will escape liability if the FERS evidence is admitted. Maybe the federal and state government policies should be changed.
Under FERS, an employee can still be working and file for disability(there are legitimate reasons for this which I will not go into here). They must also file for T2 dib, even though they are still performing SGA. The T2 DIB is denied for SGA , and the FERS is processed. If medically approved, the employee must resign immediately, after which they would file a real T2 DIB claim.
More disability BS. I'd wager perhaps 40% of the cases ODAR approves involve individuals who are truly disabled under the law. The rest are made of whole cloth with evidence from lying treating physician and perjured testimony from the claimant, all orchestrated by dishonest attorneys.
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