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Frank Darras:
“Oftentimes, it’s really difficult to decide when you’re really disabled. It’s no problem if you’re hurt in an accident. That’s easy. It’s the day of the accident.”
“But when you’ve got a progressive sickness, sometimes we see it a lot with doctors. They give away the big surgeries. They let the younger associates take over the surgical responsibilities. And by the time they get ready to file a year or two later, they’re left with the strains and sprains or pre and post-op follow-up care and treatment duties, and the carrier doesn’t have a very clear picture of your true occupation.”
“So be careful. If you’ve got real difficulty with the important, the primary, or the material duties, that’s when you’re total. If you could do some but not all of your duties, that’s when you’re residual. And a lot has to do with your earnings. If your earnings are plummeting at the time you want to claim total disability, it makes it real easy for the carrier to argue that there’s financial gain involved with your claim.”