Tips For Accident Victims That Intend To Make Disability Claim

Because not every insurance company has adopted the same definition for “disability,” the task of filing a disability claim can prove quite challenging.

What is a disability?

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), it is impairment, an inhibition to an activity, or a restraint on participation in some type action, as a consequence of some harmful act that has affected the body.

—Impairment is a problem affecting a bodily function or structure
—An inhibition on an activity is a problem faced when attempting a specific task
—A restraint on participation in some type of action is the need to face a struggle when attempting a given task.

Not every insurance company has chosen to adopt the WHO’s definition for a disability.

Do you have a short-term or a long-term disability?

A short-term disability would not last any longer than 6 months.

A long-term disability would persist, behind that 6-month time span.

Injury lawyer in Orillia knows that victims that receive either short-term disability, or long-term disability payments get between 60% and 85% of their income.

Why might an accident victim that has applied for disability benefits need to get in touch with a personal injury lawyer?

Sometimes the insurance company that has received the victim’s application refuses to grant the requested benefits. When that happens, then the victim that has been denied benefits must seek the assistance of a personal injury lawyer.

Sometimes, too, a person that has been receiving disability benefits for 2 years wants the insurance company to issue a different type of benefit (long-term, instead of short-term). That request too, could be denied. Someone that has received such a denial could use the help of a personal injury attorney.

As a rule, payments made to those with 6 months of a disability provides them with some form of income, when each of those disabled recipients can no longer do his or her assigned workplace task. In order to extend payments beyond that 6-month interval, the disabled victims must show proof of their inability to do any of the jobs that each of them was trained to handle.

So, how can the recipient of disability payments produce that required proof? The same recipient must attend an independent medical examination (IME). At that IME the examining doctor cannot study any aspect of the patient’s health that does not relate to the previously identified impairment, activity inhibition, or restraint on participation.

Someone that had not hired a personal injury lawyer might struggle to seek enforcement of that restriction. On the other hand, those that had hired such a lawyer should be able to depend on his/her input, if the insurance company were to ignore the restraints on the doctor’s observations.