A Navy veteran and AC mechanic from Orlando, Florida, had his long-term disability benefits terminated by Life Insurance Company of North America after nearly a decade of continuous, approved payments, despite a permanent spinal condition that had only worsened over time and left him unable to hold any prolonged position without escalating pain. He came to Dabdoub Law Firm, where Attorney Emily Quirino built a focused appeal backed by a board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon's unequivocal conclusion that our client remained totally and permanently disabled. Faced with that record and the weight of nearly 10 years of its own payment history, Life Insurance Company of North America reversed its termination decision and reinstated our client's benefits in full.
What to Know About This Case:
- A Navy veteran and AC mechanic from Orlando, Florida, had his long-term disability benefits terminated by Life Insurance Company of North America after nearly a decade of approved payments, despite permanent post-laminectomy syndrome causing chronic, debilitating pain that no surgical intervention had been able to resolve.
- Attorney Emily Quirino built a compelling appeal demonstrating that the insurer's termination rationale, which stated that our client could perform sedentary work because he could sit constantly, ignored his chronic pain, inability to sustain prolonged positions, and the disabling cognitive side effects of his pain medications.
- Dabdoub Law Firm secured full reinstatement of our client's long-term disability benefits without the need for litigation.
A Career Built on Physical Skill Ended by a Spine Injury
Our client served his country in the United States Navy before transitioning to civilian life and building a career as an AC mechanic for a major engineering firm. The work demanded physical strength, positional tolerance, and the kind of hands-on technical precision that comes from years of specialized experience. In 2015, escalating back pain and neck pain led to lumbar fusion surgery. When that procedure failed to resolve his symptoms, a revision surgery followed in 2016. Neither intervention worked. Our client stopped working entirely in June 2016, and the condition forced him out of the workforce.
Post-laminectomy syndrome left our client unable to maintain any prolonged position without experiencing steadily intensifying pain. Sitting, standing, and walking each become intolerable beyond short intervals, and the pain regularly disrupts his sleep, forcing him out of bed and into a recliner throughout the night. His wife, who has witnessed this pattern firsthand over many years with no meaningful improvement, described its daily reality in a statement supporting his appeal. Our client himself explained that staying in one position for any extended period causes his pain to increase relentlessly, making the sustained, uninterrupted activity that any workday requires effectively impossible.
Managing that level of chronic pain requires strong medications, including opioid and anti-spastic drugs whose side effects create an additional layer of functional impairment. Drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, and cognitive slowing are documented consequences of his pain management regimen, and they compound the limitations imposed by the pain itself. The most recent imaging of his lumbar spine confirmed continued structural deterioration, and his treating orthopedic spine surgeon concluded after a physical examination that our client remains totally and permanently disabled from any gainful employment.
Attorney Quirino Exposed the Weakness in the Insurer's Decision
Life Insurance Company of North America had approved our client's disability claim in 2017, determined he was disabled from any occupation in 2019, and paid his benefits continuously for nearly a decade. The insurer's own medical examiner had found him functionally impaired in 2019. The Social Security Administration had independently determined he was disabled that same year, with an administrative law judge specifically concluding that his acquired job skills did not transfer to other occupations. In December 2022, the insurer offered to buy out our client's policy entirely, which acknowledged that they expected to remain financially liable for his claim for the foreseeable future. Our client declined that offer. Three years later, the insurer terminated his benefits anyway.
The termination rested on a single, narrow argument. It claimed that because the insurer's reviewing physician concluded our client could sit on a constant basis, he was therefore capable of performing a sedentary job for eight hours a day, five days a week. Attorney Emily Quirino dismantled that reasoning. The insurer's own reviewer had acknowledged significant limitations in standing, walking, bending, lifting, and carrying, yet the insurer selectively seized on the sitting conclusion while ignoring everything else. The argument failed to accept that our client cannot sustain any prolonged position, including sitting, without pain that steadily intensifies over time. His pain management medications produce documented cognitive side effects that further impair his ability to perform consistently and reliably throughout a workday. A sedentary job does not resolve either of those realities; it simply relocates them to a desk.
Attorney Quirino paired that legal argument with a letter from our client's treating orthopedic spine surgeon, a board-certified specialist who had physically examined our client and reviewed his complete medical history. The surgeon concluded without qualification that our client remains totally and permanently disabled from any gainful employment, citing permanent neurological damage and residual scar tissue from his two surgeries as the basis for an irreversible condition. That opinion, combined with the weight of nearly 10 years of the insurer's own payment history, the Social Security Administration's independent disability determination, and the insurer's own 2019 medical examiner's findings, left Life Insurance Company of North America without a defensible basis for its termination decision. The insurer reversed course and reinstated our client's long-term disability benefits in full without the case ever reaching federal court.
Lawyers with Expertise in Disability Insurance Claims & Appeals
At Dabdoub Law Firm, disability insurance is all we do. We represent clients nationwide and have successfully handled disability insurance claims involving:
- Long term disability denials and appeals
- Individual disability insurance claims
- Depression and anxiety disorders
- Cognitive impairment and memory loss
- Neurological conditions
- Medication side effects
We have taken on every major insurance company and have built a proven track record of success, including victories in federal court.
Because we specialize in long-term disability, our clients get the benefit of:
- Having an attorney who is an expert in long-term disability claims;
- Having an attorney who has experience with every major disability insurance company; and
- Being backed by a law firm that has a proven track record of winning tough disability lawsuits.
Need Help with a Disability Insurance Claim?
If your disability claim has been denied or you are struggling to navigate the claims process, we can help.
We help with:
- Filing a disability insurance claim
- Appealing denied or terminated long-term disability benefits
- Negotiating a lump-sum settlement
- Filing a lawsuit against your disability insurance company
We represent clients nationwide and charge no fees unless we win your case.
Call (800) 969-0488 or contact us online to speak with an experienced disability attorney. Pay no fees or costs unless you get paid.