Key Takeaways:
- Insurers like Unum often argue that medical proof submitted during a long term disability appeal is “not time relevant” if it post-dates your elimination period or initial denial date.
- The time-relevant argument is misleading: chronic and progressive conditions evolve, and later medical evidence can illuminate how you were functioning during the disputed timeframe and beyond.
- Your long term disability appeal should connect later records back to the claim period using treating-doctor opinions, objective testing, and a clear timeline of symptoms and work limits.
- Dabdoub Law Firm specializes in long term disability claims and appeals nationwide and has a proven record in getting disability benefits paid.
How Unum Uses A “Time Relevance” Argument
At the long term disability appeal stage, Unum may say your new MRI, functional capacity evaluation (FCE), neuropsychological evaluation, or specialist report is irrelevant because it was created after:
- the elimination period, or
- the date Unum terminated or denied benefits.
The disability insurance company’s goal is to narrow the evidentiary window so that helpful proof never gets considered. Certainly, a claimant would not know what evidence is needed until the claim is denied. So “time relevant” medical evidence literally could not exist during that time.
Indeed, disability is not static. Degenerative disc disease, autoimmune disorders, long-COVID, migraines, CRPS, ME/CFS, and many psychiatric conditions wax and wane; objective and clinical confirmation often arrives later, even though the symptoms and related work limitations existed earlier. ERISA and individual disability policies require a reasoned, good-faith assessment of the totality of the medical and vocational evidence. If later-dated proof reliably reflects your functioning during the relevant period, it belongs in the record and should be afforded the proper weight in proving disability.
The Legal And Medical Reality: Later Evidence Can Prove Earlier Disability
Insurers frequently treat the elimination period as a wall. In reality, later records often:
- Explain earlier symptoms with a diagnosis (e.g., a 2025 rheumatology workup explains 2024 fatigue and joint pain).
- Objectively confirm severity (e.g., a later FCE quantifies lifting, sitting, and pace limits consistent with your earlier complaints).
- Show longitudinal consistency (e.g., continuing medication changes, failed return-to-work attempts, or increased provider frequency).
- Corroborate treating-physician observations (e.g., your PCP’s notes of persistent flares later validate the earlier inability to sustain full-time work).
Put simply, medical evidence does not become irrelevant because it is newer; it becomes relevant if it credibly reflects how you were functioning during the disputed months.
How To Frame Your Long Term Disability Appeal Against A “Not Time Relevant” Denial
Build A Tight Medical Timeline
Create a timeline of your symptoms and tie in any objective testing and abnormal physical exam findings or mental health records. Tie each new document to earlier facts: “Although this lumbar MRI is from March 2025, it explains the radicular pain, positive straight-leg raise, and reduced sitting tolerance documented throughout 2024.”
A clear timeline helps the disability insurance claims reviewers, potentially a judge, see how post-dated testing illuminates what was going on during the elimination period or when your LTD benefits are denied.
Get Retrospective Opinions From Treating Specialists
Ask your treating physicians to write retrospective nexus statements connecting later findings to earlier limitations. Helpful language includes:
- The condition’s course (chronic, progressive, or episodic).
- Objective correlates (e.g., MRI levels, inflammatory markers, neuropsych scores) and how these likely existed in similar form during the earlier months. This can be based on physical exam findings or personal observations by the provider.
- Functional restrictions (sitting, standing, lifting, keyboarding, concentration, off-task time, absence frequency) as of specific dates within the elimination period. The more specific the dates and work-function metrics, the harder it is for Unum to wave the opinion away as “too late.”
Use Objective Testing Strategically
Later-dated tests can retroactively validate earlier complaints. Common examples:
- Imaging (MRI/CT) that accounts for persistent pain and failed PT.
- FCEs that quantify endurance, pace, and postural limits matching earlier reports.
- Neuropsychological batteries that explain cognitive deficits from conditions like long-COVID, MS, Lyme, or major depression.
- Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET/VO2 max) demonstrating post-exertional malaise consistent with prior fatigue logs.
In your long term disability appeal letter, clearly connect the findings of these tests to your job’s material duties and to restrictions during the claim window.
Document Daily Function
You should maintain a concise symptom diary, documenting symptoms like pain or migraines, flares, need to lay down and medication side effects. The log should demonstrate the ongoing impairments your disabling medical condition is causing on daily basis and paint a picture of what you go through each day. If you attempted to return to work or try accommodations and failed, describe when, how long, and why. These facts show continuity of impairment, not a new problem that appeared later.
Address Your Occupational Demands
Insurers sometimes ignore how limitations interact with your job’s material duties. You can work with a vocational expert to map medical restrictions to specific job tasks (sustained sitting, rapid keystrokes, fine manipulation). Emphasize reliability and attendance demonstrating that you are unable to reliably and consistently work in your occupation, or any occupation.
Call Out Review Flaws
Common Unum review issues include:
- Cherry-picking: citing normal findings while ignoring abnormal exams or longitudinal trends.
- Snapshot reasoning:treating two “good days” as proof you could sustain full-time work.
- Paper reviews over in-person assessments, even when credibility and effort are at issue.
- Refusing to consider later evidence that clearly speaks to earlier function.
- Your appeal should itemize these defects and explain how they violate a fair and reasoned evaluation of the full record.
Consider An Independent Medical Evaluation (IME) Or FCE
An IME or FCE during appeal can provide independent support. Ask the examiner to answer retrospective questions: “Based on today’s findings and the chart, is it more likely than not that these restrictions existed as of [specific dates]?” If Unum insists later proof is irrelevant yet declines an IME, note that inconsistency, insisting on timing while refusing the tool that could connect timing.
Long Term Disability Appeal Packet: Make It Easy To Say “Approved”
Your long-term disability appeal packet should be organized and thorough, with medical and non-medical evidence of disability such as:
- Cover letter with a detailed summary of disability and the evidence that supports it.
- Physician statements with date-specific, retrospective opinions tying new evidence to the “relevant” time period (i.e. the elimination period).
- Personal statement detailing the chronology of your disability and examples of your day-to-day functioning
- Objective testing reports and findings.
- Vocational analysis translating medical limits to real-world work capacity.
Practical Examples Of “Later Proof” That Counts
- A post-denial MRI revealing multi-level stenosis explains documented pre-denial radiculopathy and failed PT—supporting sitting/standing intolerance during the elimination period.
- A neuropsychological evaluation that was done months after your date of disability but shows impaired processing speed and working memory consistent with earlier reports of brain fog or cognitive impairments
- A CPET performed after the elimination period that demonstrates exertional intolerance aligning with earlier reports of fatigue
How Dabdoub Law Firm Builds Winning Long Term Disability Appeals
We focus exclusively on long-term disability insurance claims and appeals, and we prepare LTD appeals with the courtroom in mind. Our approach:
- Nationwide reach, insurer-specific experience: We’ve battled every major insurer, including Unum, and know their review patterns and common denial tactics.
- Medical-legal integration: We work directly with your physicians and independent providers to secure retrospective nexus opinions and to ensure independent testing and evaluations address the right issues.
- Vocational reviews: We work with vocational experts to apply your doctor supported restrictions and limitations to your occupational duties, or the duties of any occupation you may be qualified for
- Litigation readiness: We build a record that can win at the claim stage or in federal court if Unum refuses to acknowledge disability.
Dabdoub Law Firm represents clients nationwide with:
- Submitting a disability insurance claim;
- Appealing a long-term disability denial;
- Negotiating a lump-sum settlement; or
- Filing a lawsuit against your disability insurance company.
Call to speak with a long term disability insurance attorney today. No fees are costs unless clients are paid.