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New York has always been a regressive State for insurance claims. Not any more. On February 19, 2008, New York's highest Court issued a decision in Bi-Economy Market, Inc. v. Harleysville Ins. Co. of New York that dramatically changed the legal landscape. An insured can now assert a claim against an Insurance Lawyer New York company for violation of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Therefore, if an insured can establish that the insurance company denial was in bad faith or that there was no reasonable basis for the denial, the insured can recover not only the insurance benefits at issue, but also reasonably foreseeable damages.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear MetLife's appeal in MetLife v. Glenn. This will perhaps be the most important Supreme Court decision in the area of long term New York Disability Lawyer claims in decades.

HR2622 is an important Bill before Congress that deserves and needs your support. Any attorney representing claimants in long term disability cases could tell you that the playing field is slanted in favor of insurance companies. This is because in most cases under existing law an insurer's denial of disability benefits will be overturned by a Court only if the Court finds that the insurer's denial was arbitrary and capricious. Instead of looking at the evidence fairly, the Court will give the insurer's denial deference. Therefore, in order to win it is not just a question of proving that you are disabled, you must establish that the insurer's denial was arbitrary. This is extremely difficult to establish.

On June 7, 2007, I lectured at the 10th National Advanced Forum on Resolving Disability Insurance Lawyer New York Claims & Litigation in Boston. The conference is sponsored by the American Conference Institute. The conference included speakers who are leading plaintiff and defense lawyers as well as top medical experts. The topic of my discussion was "Developments in ERISA Claims Handling and Litigation." Attending the conference are plaintiffs and defense lawyers as well as insurance company claims managers. Please take a look at ACI's website for more information, http://americanconference.com

Scott M. Riemer appeared as the guest speaker at the membership meeting of the Greater New York Chapter of the Vasculitis Foundation held on May 17, 2007. Mr. Riemer addressed potential pitfalls claimants could face when applying for long term disability benefits, particularly with respect to the family of diseases comprising vasculitis. The following diseases comprise vasculitis: