DL Law Group In the Media

Plaintiff Magazine:

• California’s Mental Health Parity Act
• Litigating Health-Care Claims
• The Increasing Importance of Mental Health Parity Laws
• The “Genuine Dispute” Defense: Overused and Abused

Appearances

• Listen to DL LAW GROUP founder David M. Lilienstein discuss all things insurance.
• Litigating an insurance bad faith case based on a denial of disability benefits. In the early 90s, Unum, following $423m in losses, had a tax specialist rework their disability claims department, aiming at increasing profitability by terminating claims.
• The Serbonian Bog – re the enactment of ERISA in 1974 by Congress. Various issues concerning welfare plans, pension plans, effects of ERISA on managed care (HMOs), and the current legal landscape.
• The Use of Bad Faith and Other Experts in the Trial of a Bad Faith Disability Case. What Is Expert Opinion In An Insurance Bad Faith Case? Requirements for admissibility in CA. Pros and cons of deposing the other side’s experts. Preparing your expert for deposition.
• The Use of Depositions From Other Cases to Prove Pattern and Practice. Companies that a Plaintiff thinks they are suing may be owned and operated by another company who may or may not be a party to their lawsuit. Defendants may attempt to separate themselves from acts of their predecessor corporation. How to introduce past deposition testimony obtained in a different case.
• Two New Landmark Insurance Bad Faith Decisions. McGregor v. Paul Revere Life Ins. Co. & Hangarter v. Provident Life and Acc. Ins. Co. McGregor attorney’s fees incurred on appeal; now recoverable. Definition of total disability – Hangarter makes clear that tactics such as asserting a self-serving definition of total disability to justify a claim denial is unacceptable.
• Gainful Occupation. “Gainful” may not defined in policy, yet the insurer will use it to kick an insured out of total disability. Beware of policies with a residual clause.
• So You Thought You Had Disability Insurance. Millions of disability insurance policies were sold to psychiatrists, surgeons, and other medical professionals during the 1980s and 1990s. Now that interest rates have plummeted, some insurers are looking for what one company’s former medical director characterized as “any pretext or excuse for denying a claim or cutting someone off.” What insureds need to expect; how to protect themselves.
• Proving Pattern And Practice Depositions,Documents And Experts
• Do You Need An Expert To Prove Bad Faith?