Fort Lauderdale · Disability Insurance Guide
One question decides how your claim ends, and most people never get asked it: did you buy the policy yourself, or does it come through work? A policy through work is almost certainly governed by ERISA, which means a federal judge in the Fort Lauderdale division decides it on the paper record, with no jury, no bad faith damages and nothing you did not put in the file before the appeal closed. A policy you bought yourself is a Florida contract case with all of that still on the table. We compared three disability insurance claim attorneys in Fort Lauderdale on Florida Bar records, the claim stages each firm actually takes, published fee terms and verified Google reviews.
DJA Editorial · Legal Directory Research
Checked against state bar licensee records, court sources and public review platforms ·
The short answer
Three practices, each strongest at a different point in the life of a claim. This is a shortlist rather than a ranking, and only one of the three has a staffed Fort Lauderdale office.
1
Disability Insurance Law Group
Best for a local claimant whose illness triggered more than one insurance claim
2
Victor Peña Law PLLC
Best when a lump sum buyout offer is already on the table
3
Dell Disability Lawyers
Best for a final denial heading into federal court
At a glance: Disability Insurance Claim Attorneys in Fort Lauderdale, compared
| Firm |
Best for |
Focus |
Bar record |
Fees |
Rating |
| Disability Insurance Law Group |
Best for a local claimant whose illness triggered more than one insurance claim |
Disability, life, long-term care and AD&D claims |
Paulino-Grisham and Chmielarz, Florida, numbers unpublished |
Free consultation, fee basis not published |
4.7 · 46 Google |
| Victor Peña Law PLLC |
Best when a lump sum buyout offer is already on the table |
Disability buyouts, claim management and overpayments |
Victor Peña, The Florida Bar 0108094 |
Contingency and free consultation, rate not published |
5.0 · 83 Google |
| Dell Disability Lawyers |
Best for a final denial heading into federal court |
ERISA appeals and federal litigation, nationwide |
Gregory Dell, The Florida Bar 299560, Florida 2000 |
Contingency, hourly or flat fee, all three published |
not verified |
Disability Insurance Claim in Fort Lauderdale: the local picture
180 days
The deadline that ends most claims
Federal regulation gives you at least 180 days from an adverse benefit determination to file your administrative appeal, and plans write that figure straight into the policy. Miss it and courts have consistently found the claim unexhausted and dismissed it. The record also closes at the end of that appeal, so a judge will usually never see anything you did not file in time.
$0
What your own claim file costs you
On written request the plan must hand over your entire claim file free of charge, within 30 days: the insurer’s internal notes, the reports of the doctors it paid, the surveillance log. Most claimants never ask. Counsel itself is normally contingency, though only one of the three firms here publishes its fee options at all.
Free
Two places to call before you hire anyone
If your plan is through work, a Department of Labor benefits advisor will review the denial and contact the plan for you at no cost, on 1-866-444-3272. If you bought the policy yourself, Florida’s Department of Financial Services takes insurance complaints on 1-877-693-5236 and can require the carrier to respond. Neither replaces a lawyer, and neither stops the 180 day clock.
What clients in Fort Lauderdale say: Across all three review records the same thing gets praised, and it is not legal argument. It is somebody picking up. Reviewers describe an attorney who stayed on the phone for an hour from a parking lot, a partner and a paralegal named in the same sentence, a nine year relationship, assistants remembered by first name years later. Disability claims are not events, they are relationships that run for years while the insurer reviews you again and again, and the reviews read accordingly. What almost nobody describes is meeting anyone in person. Two of the three firms run essentially remote practices, and one of those is not in Fort Lauderdale at all.
How we chose these Disability Insurance Claim Attorneys in Fort Lauderdale
We looked at firms handling private and ERISA disability insurance claims for Fort Lauderdale residents, then compared them on things you can check yourself: The Florida Bar member record for each named attorney, which stages of a claim the firm actually takes, whether it publishes fee terms, where its office really is, and the visible client reviews on Google.
The three are a shortlist, not a ranking, and each leads at a different point in a claim. Firm details come from each firm’s own site and attorney bios, cross checked against Google Business Profile listings, Florida Bar records, public attorney directories and BBB profiles, plus the federal claims regulation and agency sources behind the deadline, claim file and free help figures. Bar numbers, admission years and discipline we could not confirm against the official Florida Bar member search during this update are flagged on the page rather than filled in, and no recovery total or success rate appears here unless the firm publishes it itself, in which case it is labelled as the firm’s own number.
1. Disability Insurance Law Group
Best for a local claimant whose illness triggered more than one insurance claim
★★★★½ 4.7 / 5 · Google · 46 reviews
The only firm here with a staffed Fort Lauderdale office. Alicia Paulino-Grisham and Mindy Chmielarz run a two-partner practice on West Commercial Boulevard that takes disability alongside life insurance, long-term care and accidental death claims, which matters because when one illness ends a career those denials tend to arrive together. Paulino-Grisham’s cases were discussed in a 2010 Senate hearing on ERISA claim practices and she helped draft language for Florida’s oral chemotherapy parity bill. If you want disability insurance claim attorneys in Fort Lauderdale you can sit across a desk from, this is the one.
Identity and footprint
Office3201 W Commercial Blvd, Suite 227, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
Phone(954) 989-9000, with a toll free 855-599-3247 and fax 954-989-9999
HoursThe Google listing shows open 24 hours, seven days a week
AttorneysAlicia Paulino-Grisham and Mindy L. Chmielarz, both named as partners
Corporate nameTrades as Disability Insurance Law Group. Paulino-Grisham’s bio gives the underlying entity as Paulino-Grisham, Smith & Chmielarz, P.A.
Named by clientsParalegal Nicole Paulino appears by name in the Google reviews alongside both partners
ReachStates representation in all 50 states, with separate state pages for Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and South Carolina (firm site)
Florida coverageSeventeen Florida city pages, from Cape Coral to West Palm Beach
Practice and scope
Core workDisability insurance claims, both private policy and group ERISA, at every stage from application to litigation
Beyond disabilityLife insurance and interpleader claims, long-term care insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment. That combination is the real differentiator on this page.
Unusual nichesA standalone eating disorder claims page and an ERISA long-term disability carrier extension requests page, neither of which the other two firms publish
Taxonomy depthAround 50 medical condition pages, 40 insurer pages and 33 occupation pages, from airline pilots to chiropractors to professional athletes
ERISA contentSeparate pages on ERISA FAQs, ERISA decision deadlines and insurance company ERISA deadlines, plus an August 2026 post on why the administrative record can make or break a case
BuyoutsCovered on an insurance lump sum buyouts page, though as one page rather than a practice line
Copy errorThe FAQ on this page contains a truncated sentence reading “If your claim is being delayed or denied, immediately.”
Firm claimOver 50 years of combined experience handling insurance matters. That is the firm’s own figure.
Credentials and licensing
Alicia Paulino-GrishamFounding partner, practice limited to claimant-side disability, life, long-term care and health insurance claims, including state and federal trial and appellate work
National profileTwo of her disability cases were discussed by Senator Max Baucus during a September 2010 Senate hearing on ERISA insurance claims, and she has appeared on Good Morning America on disability, life and ERISA matters
Legislative workHelped parity advocates draft language for Florida’s oral chemotherapy parity bill
SpeakingSelected by the American Conference Institute for its 20th National Advanced Forum on Litigating Disability Insurance Claims in Miami, and by the Florida Chiropractic Physicians Association for a 2016 continuing education seminar on disability claims
Mindy L. ChmielarzPartner. Client reviews reference her AV peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
Directory listingsHolds a Distinguished Justice Advocates listing under Mindy L. Chmielarz, plus Leaders of Law and Legal Ambassadors listings, all badged on this page
Fees and consultation
ConsultationFree and confidential case assessment, advertised throughout the site
ERISA fee shiftingUnder 29 U.S.C. 1132(g)(1) a court can order the plan to pay your attorney fees, and the Supreme Court held in Hardt v. Reliance Standard that you need only some degree of success on the merits rather than a final judgment
Before you signYour claim file is free. Ask the firm to request it during the consultation, because what is in it usually decides whether the case is worth taking.
What clients say
✓ Relationships running several years
✓ Both partners named, not just the firm
✓ Monthly paperwork handled for clients
✓ Life and long-term care matters appear too
· 4.7 of 5, the only rating here below five
Forty six reviews, and the tone is about staying power rather than a single win. Reviewers describe years of ongoing claim management, a partner and a paralegal working as a pair, and one family’s long-term care denial for a father in an elder care facility. Both partners appear by name and so does paralegal Nicole Paulino. At 4.7 this is the only firm on the page rated below a perfect five, which means critical entries exist in the record. Read past the first page before deciding.
Why they fit Fort Lauderdale: The natural first call if you are actually in Broward and want an office you can walk into, and the strongest fit when one illness has triggered more than one claim, because this is the only firm here that takes life, long-term care and accidental death work alongside disability. The Senate hearing citation and the parity bill work are real and checkable. Go in knowing the trade offs. This is two partners rather than a litigation department, no fee basis of any kind appears anywhere on the site, and at 4.7 across 46 reviews there are critical entries in the record that neither other listing has. Ask how many ERISA lawsuits the firm filed in the Southern District of Florida last year, and which partner would carry yours.
2. Victor Peña Law PLLC
Best when a lump sum buyout offer is already on the table
★★★★★ 5.0 / 5 · Google · 83 reviews
The narrowest practice here, on purpose. Victor Peña worked at Dell & Schaefer, the third firm on this page, before opening his own office on East Broward Boulevard, and his own attorney profile states he now focuses exclusively on negotiating disability buyouts and settlements. The domain is disabilitybuyoutlawyer.com. He also covers the two problems nobody else advertises as practice lines: month to month claim management, and overpayment demands that land after a Social Security award. As a disability insurance lawyer in Fort Lauderdale to price a lump sum, this is the one built for it.
Identity and footprint
Fort Lauderdale office500 E Broward Blvd, Suite 1710, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33394, a short walk from the federal courthouse where ERISA cases in this division are heard
Second office505 Wekiva Springs Rd, Suite 300, Longwood, FL 32779, in the Orlando area. That is the address carried on his Florida Bar record.
Three live phone numbersThe site header and footer give (954) 475-6038. The body of this page and the Google listing give (954) 828-0592. His attorney directory profile gives (954) 828-0220 with a fax of (954) 900-5602.
HoursBoth Google listings show open 24 hours, seven days a week
AttorneyVictor Peña, sole attorney and founder
LanguagesEnglish and Spanish
AccreditationBBB accredited since 1 October 2019, filed under the Fort Lauderdale address
How the work runsClients describe a fully remote process by phone and email, and the site states the same. Nobody in the visible reviews describes an office meeting.
Practice and scope
Core workDisability insurance claims only, with no adjacent practice areas on the site
Named practice linesDisability insurance buyouts, monthly claims handling, long-term disability overpayments, denials, ERISA disability appeals and ERISA disability lawsuits
Buyout depthSeparate pages for New York Life, Guardian, Hartford and Aetna, Lincoln Financial Liberty Life, MetLife, Mutual of Omaha, Principal, Prudential, Sun Life, The Standard and Unum, plus a page on Lucens Group, a buyout intermediary neither other site mentions
The overpayment nicheA standalone page on long-term disability overpayment demands, which is what arrives after a Social Security award reduces what the insurer owed. Neither other firm carries this as a practice line.
Scope tensionHis claimed attorney directory profile states he now focuses exclusively on buyouts and settlements, while the site still advertises appeals and lawsuits. Resolve that on the first call.
Prior firmPreviously an attorney at Attorneys Dell & Schaefer Chartered, the third firm on this page
Page noteThis page carries no meta description at all, and its body text prints a different phone number from the header
Credentials and licensing
The Florida BarVictor Peña, member number 0108094
Law schoolJ.D., St. Thomas University School of Law, 2013, taken alongside an MBA in international business from St. Thomas the same year
UndergraduateB.A. in international affairs and B.A. in Spanish, Florida State University, 2009
Prior experienceAttorney at Attorneys Dell & Schaefer Chartered before founding his own firm, which is where the disability practice came from
Listed practice areasDisability insurance, bad faith insurance, life insurance and motor vehicle insurance
Fees and consultation
StructureContingency, per his attorney directory profile. The site advertises a free consultation but prints no rate.
Why that question matters hereA percentage of a lump sum and a percentage of recovered monthly benefits are very different numbers on the same claim. Ask him to run both.
ConsultationFree, by phone, and reviewers describe him taking those calls personally
One route a buyout closes offOn an ERISA appeal or lawsuit a court can order the plan to pay your fees under 29 U.S.C. 1132(g)(1). On a negotiated buyout that route does not exist, so the fee comes out of your settlement.
What clients say
✓ Highest rated base on this page
✓ He answers the phone himself
✓ Buyout and settlement outcomes dominate
✓ Fully remote process praised
· Nobody describes an office meeting
Eighty three reviews at a clean five, and they describe one person rather than a firm. Reviewers recount Victor Peña taking the call himself from someone sitting in a parking lot and staying on for an hour, settling a claim for more than expected, and handling a buyout offer that arrived out of the blue. The recurring subject is a settlement or a buyout rather than a denial overturned, which lines up exactly with his stated focus. Several praise the remote process as convenient.
Why they fit Fort Lauderdale: The clearest pick when the insurer has already put a lump sum on the table, or when you are on claim and want someone to absorb the monthly paperwork so a missed form does not end your benefits. The buyout depth is real: eleven carrier-specific pages plus one on the intermediary the carriers themselves use. Two honest caveats. This is one attorney, so capacity is finite, and his own directory profile says he now focuses exclusively on buyouts and settlements even though the site still advertises appeals and lawsuits. Three different phone numbers are live across his site, his Google listing and his directory profile. Ask which number reaches him, and ask directly whether he would take a straight denial appeal.
3. Dell Disability Lawyers
Best for a final denial heading into federal court
The deepest bench, and not in Fort Lauderdale. Dell Disability Lawyers is the disability division of Attorneys Dell & Schaefer: nine disability attorneys led by Gregory Dell, who has written the long-term disability chapter of West’s Florida Insurance Law and Practice every year since 2006 and serves as vice chair of the American Bar Association’s health and disability insurance law committee. If your denial is going to end up in front of a federal judge and you want nationwide long-term disability attorneys with a treatise author on the masthead, that is what is on offer here.
Identity and footprint
Not a Fort Lauderdale officeGregory Dell’s Florida Bar record gives 2625 Weston Rd, Weston, FL 33331, roughly 20 miles west of downtown Fort Lauderdale, with office number 954-620-8300
Conflicting addressesDirectories describe the firm as Hollywood, Florida based, one prints the Weston street address with a Hollywood ZIP code, and the homepage publishes no street address at all. Confirm where you would actually be sending documents.
Phone800-698-9159 across the site
Disability attorneysGregory Dell, Steven Dell, Alex Palamara, Cesar Gavidia, Jason Macri, Jerel Dawson, Jay Symonds, Rachel Alters and Stephen Jessup
The wider firmAttorneys Dell & Schaefer states 15 attorneys in total, nine on disability and six on Florida personal injury
Founding datesThe disability homepage says established 1979 and the copyright line reads 2001 to 2026, while the firm’s own corporate profile dates the disability division to 1994 and the 1979 date to the injury division
Meeting in personThe firm states 99% of clients prefer phone, email or video and that you never need to come to the office
Google listingNo verified Google Business Profile surfaced for the firm’s Broward office during this update
Practice and scope
Core workDisability insurance only on this site, private policy and group ERISA, at every stage
Five named servicesApplication help, appeal packages, lawsuits, monthly claim management on a flat fee, and lump sum buyout negotiation
Adjacent claimsLong-term care benefits and life insurance benefits
Library scale47 insurer pages, 50 condition pages, 32 occupation pages, 413 resolved claims, 766 lawsuit summaries, 739 answered questions, 333 benefit tips and 957 videos, with live counters on the page
A tool nobody else has681 policyholder reviews of the insurance companies themselves, searchable by carrier and including sharply critical entries about Hartford, Sun Life and Lincoln Financial. Useful whoever you end up hiring.
BuyoutsThe firm states it has negotiated more than five hundred million dollars in disability buyouts. That is the firm’s own figure.
Figures that do not agreeThe homepage states over two billion dollars recovered in one place and hundreds of millions in another, and cites both 1,000 and 900 videos while the counter reads 957. It also states a 98% success rate. All are the firm’s own numbers and none can be checked from outside.
Credentials and licensing
Gregory DellThe Florida Bar member number 299560, admitted in Florida in 2000
Other admissionsNew York 2002, District of Columbia 2007, Texas 2009 and Massachusetts 2010, plus the Eleventh Circuit and the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the Northern District of Illinois and the Eastern District of Texas
Published authoritySelected by Thomson Reuters in 2006 to author the long-term disability chapter of Florida Insurance Law and Practice, volume 17 of West’s Florida Practice Series, republished annually and used by Florida attorneys and judges
Bar leadershipVice chair of the American Bar Association Health and Disability Insurance Law Committee
EducationJ.D., Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 2000. B.S.B.A. in accounting, Washington University in St. Louis, 1997.
Earlier careerAssistant State Attorney in Broward County, where his bio states he handled thousands of cases and took part in more than 50 jury trials, followed by a $2.96 million jury verdict against Nationwide for an emergency room physician
Peer ratingMartindale-Hubbell 5.0 peer rating. A peer rating reflects the confidential opinions of other lawyers rather than case outcomes.
Fees and consultation
StructureThree options published: contingency with no fee or cost unless there is a recovery, hourly, or fixed flat rate, with a written fee agreement in every case. That is the only published fee menu among the three firms here.
Monthly managementA flat fee service for handling an approved claim month to month, priced separately from appeal or litigation work
ConsultationFree phone consultation, and the firm states you reach an attorney rather than an intake screener during business hours
ERISA fee shifting29 U.S.C. 1132(g)(1) lets a court order the plan to pay your fees, which matters most once a case is actually in federal court
What clients say
✓ A different attorney named in almost every review
✓ Assistants named alongside attorneys
✓ Terminated benefits reinstated on appeal
· No verified Broward Google listing found
· Testimonials are the firm’s own selection
The firm publishes 503 client testimonials on its own site rather than carrying a verified Google listing for its Broward office, so treat these as a selection rather than a record. What they do show is breadth. Stephen Jessup, Alex Palamara, Jay Symonds and Rachel Alters each appear with their own assistants named, and the matters run from a physician denied by New York Life to a police officer and pharmacist, to a Social Security offset problem. One reviewer describes a nine year relationship. Ask for Florida client references you can call.
Why they fit Fort Lauderdale: The right call when the denial is final, the appeal has to be built to survive a federal judge reading nothing but the paper record, and you want a firm that files these suits nationwide every month. Gregory Dell writing the annual long-term disability chapter of a West treatise used by Florida judges is the single strongest credential on this page, and the published fee menu is the only one of the three. The caveats are location and internal consistency. This is not a Fort Lauderdale firm, the bar record says Weston while directories say Hollywood, the homepage carries no street address, no verified Google review base surfaced, and the same page states both two billion and hundreds of millions recovered. Ask which of the nine attorneys would carry your file and where that person sits.
What to check before hiring a Disability Insurance Claim Attorney in Fort Lauderdale
✓ Find the date on your denial letter and count 180 days
That is the whole case. Federal regulation gives you at least 180 days from an adverse benefit determination to file the administrative appeal, and courts have consistently dismissed claims where it was missed. Write the deadline on the envelope, keep the envelope for the postmark, and treat the last 30 days as unusable, because no attorney can build a medical record in a fortnight.
✓ Ask for your entire claim file in writing today
The plan must give it to you free and within 30 days of a written request: internal claim notes, the reports of the physicians the insurer paid to review you, surveillance summaries, vocational assessments. You do not need a lawyer to ask and you should not wait for one. Send it by certified mail. What is in that file usually decides whether your case is worth taking.
✓ Work out whether ERISA applies before you do anything else
A policy through your employer is almost certainly ERISA governed, which means federal court, no jury, no bad faith damages, no pain and suffering, and a judge who in most cases reads only the administrative record. A policy you bought yourself is a Florida contract claim with a jury and the state bad faith statute available. The two cases are built completely differently from day one.
✓ Do not file a bare appeal to buy yourself time
A handwritten note saying you appeal is legally an appeal. The insurer can then decide it within 45 days, on the file as it stands, and the record closes. Everything you meant to add afterwards never gets considered by anyone, including the judge. If you need more time, ask for an extension in writing rather than triggering the clock.
✓ Get the fee basis in writing before you sign anything
Only one of the three firms on this page publishes its fee options at all. Ask whether the work is contingency, hourly or flat fee, whether the rate changes between the appeal stage and a lawsuit, how it is calculated on a lump sum buyout as opposed to recovered monthly benefits, and who pays case costs if there is no recovery.
✓ Check the licence yourself on The Florida Bar
The Florida Bar runs a free member search showing bar number, admission year, current status, office of record and disciplinary history. Search the individual attorney who will sign your retainer. Two of the three firms here publish no bar number on their own sites, and one attorney’s office of record is in a different county from the office you would be calling.
Disability Insurance Claim Attorneys in Fort Lauderdale: frequently asked questions
How long do I have to appeal a disability denial in Florida?
If your plan is employer provided, federal regulation requires it to give you at least 180 days from the adverse benefit determination to file your administrative appeal, and almost every plan writes exactly 180 days into the policy. Courts have consistently held they cannot hear a case where that deadline was missed, because the claim is unexhausted. If you bought the policy yourself, the appeal timetable is whatever the contract says, and the deadline to sue in Florida on a written contract is longer, but the practical urgency is the same because evidence goes stale.
Is my policy governed by ERISA, and why does it matter here?
If you get the coverage through work, it almost certainly is. ERISA preempts state insurance law for employer plans, which means no jury, no bad faith damages under Florida’s statute, no pain and suffering, and a federal judge who in most cases will read nothing but the administrative record compiled during your appeal. In Fort Lauderdale that case is heard in the Fort Lauderdale division of the Southern District of Florida. A policy you bought yourself stays a Florida contract claim, with a jury and the state remedies intact.
What does a disability insurance attorney charge?
Usually a contingency percentage, but not always, and none of the three firms here publishes an actual rate. One publishes its options, which are contingency, hourly or a fixed flat fee, plus a flat monthly fee for managing an approved claim. Ask which applies to your stage, and ask separately about a buyout, because a percentage of a lump sum is a very different number from a percentage of recovered monthly benefits. On an ERISA case a court can also order the plan to pay your fees under 29 U.S.C. 1132(g)(1).
Can I sue my insurer for bad faith in Florida?
Only if the policy is not an ERISA plan. For a private policy you bought yourself, Florida Statutes section 624.155 allows a first party bad faith action, but you must first file a civil remedy notice with the Department of Financial Services and give the insurer 60 days to cure. If the policy came through your employer, ERISA preempts that route entirely and your recovery is generally limited to the benefits owed plus possible interest and attorney fees, which is the single biggest difference between the two kinds of claim.
Should I take the lump sum buyout the insurer offered?
Sometimes, and the maths is genuinely hard. A buyout trades a stream of monthly payments you might lose at the next review for certainty now, discounted for present value and for the insurer’s estimate of how likely it is to keep paying you. The insurer has actuaries running that calculation and you do not. An offer arriving unprompted usually means the carrier has decided your claim is expensive, which is information about value. Have someone price both the offer and the remaining benefit stream before you answer.
The insurer approved me, then asked for money back. What is that?
An overpayment demand, and it is common. Most group policies offset your benefit against Social Security disability, so when your SSDI award comes through with back pay, the insurer recalculates what it should have paid and bills you for the difference, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars. Some carriers also withhold future monthly payments until it clears. The amount is often negotiable and the calculation is often wrong. Do not pay a demand letter before someone has checked the arithmetic against your policy’s offset language.
DJA Editorial
Legal Directory Research
Compiles Distinguished Justice Advocates city guides from state bar member records, federal regulation and agency sources, and publicly visible client reviews. Firms appear as a shortlist rather than a ranking. Figures a firm publishes about itself are labelled as such, and anything that could not be verified is flagged on the page rather than estimated.
Sources and method
- The Florida Bar member directory: bar numbers, admission years, offices of record, current status and disciplinary history for each named attorney, with anything unconfirmed flagged on the page.
- Firm websites and attorney bios: office addresses, phone numbers, named attorneys, practice scope, published results, fee terms and consultation policy.
- Google Business Profile listings for each firm: ratings, review counts, opening hours and the review text behind the client themes.
- Public attorney directories and BBB business profiles: additional admissions, education, prior firms, languages and accreditation dates.
- 29 CFR 2560.503-1: the 180 day appeal window, the 30 day claim file request, the 45 day appeal decision period and the exhaustion requirement.
- 29 U.S.C. 1132(a) and 1132(g)(1), and Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co.: the ERISA cause of action and the discretionary award of attorney fees.
- Florida Statutes section 624.155 and section 95.11: the civil remedy notice and 60 day cure period for first party bad faith, and the limitations period on a written contract.
- US Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration and the Florida Department of Financial Services Division of Consumer Services: the free benefits advisor and insurance complaint routes.
