Published by The Pellegrin Firm July 29, 2019
The relationship between Long-Term Disability benefits and Social Security Disability benefits creates a lot of confusion and concern among claimants. This relationship is the source of a great number of questions and frustrations.
Published by The Pellegrin Firm July 27, 2019
The new world of Uber and Lyft has given us great new cost-effective ways to get around the New Orleans area. Also, these rideshare services provide hundreds if not thousands of people with a secondary or primary income on a flexible schedule. However, Uber and Lyft vehicles are still exposed to the usual risks and liabilities of driving. An accident with or in an Uber or Lyft rideshare vehicle can cause temporary or permanent disability and possibly hundreds of thousands in losses.
The Jones Act provides maritime workers with special avenues of recovery and other special protections. In passing the Jones Act, Congress recognized that working on a vessel is an unusually dangerous job than can lead to serious disability and injury. This also means the courts are especially hesitant to enforce unfair releases of Jones Act rights.
On July 3, 2019, the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles rendered judgement on a dispute over the status of riverboat casinos as “vessels.” This is important because the plaintiff, who sustained injuries while operating a scissor lift on a riverboat casino moored in Lake Charles, filed his suit under the Jones Act. The Jones Act provides …
Court in New Orleans finds plaintiff failed to timely exhaust administrative remedies in Joint and Survivor Benefit ERISA case.
In an unpublished opinion dated June 20, 2019, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit unanimously agreed with a North Carolina district judge that Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company abused its discretion in terminating a man’s long-term disability benefits. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, III authored the opinion. The case is Smith v. Reliance Standard Life …
On June 25, 2019, Judge Lance Africk of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana remanded a car accident case to the Civil District Court of the Parish of Orleans for the second time, finding the defendants still did not make a sufficient showing that the amount in controversy exceeded $75,000. The case arose from a car …
In a ruling dated July 2, 2019, a panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected Cincinnati Insurance Company’s position that it did not owe coverage for exemplary damages in a drunk driving case because drunk driving is an intentional act and not an accident. The first sentence of the Fifth Circuit’s opinion states: …
It seems unfair that an insurance company can underpay a claim and then hide behind time limit defenses when challenged in court. After all, it would seem that the company causes harm to the long-term disability claimant each time it underpays a monthly benefit amount. However, some courts have held that the claimant must challenge the benefit calculation within a …
On June 24, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision on punitive damages in unseaworthiness cases. The case is Dutra Group v. Batterton, No. 18-266. In deciding the case, the Court looked toward two of its precedents: Miles v. Apex Marine Corp., 498 U.S. 19 (1990), and Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 557 U. S. 404 (2009). Miles …