If I start a long term disability lawsuit, will I have to go to court?

The majority of lawsuits settle without going to court. Settlements, not court trials, are typically the preferred way to resolve LTD claims, wherever possible, because: 

• Settlements allow the parties to control the outcome of the case and therefore achieve certainty as to outcome, rather than leaving an uncertain outcome to the courts. 

• Settlements can be reached at any time, rather than the parties having to await a potentially costly trial that can be many years away. 

• Settlements remove the risk that the losing party will have to pay the winning party a substantial amount of money in legal costs. 

One crucial, but often overlooked, reason for settlements is that they can include money for future LTD benefits. Trial judges cannot force an LTD insurer pay benefits for the future. Rather, judges only have the power to order the payment of past LTD benefits and interest if the insurer is found to have wrongly denied benefits. Judges can also order the reinstatement of LTD benefits based on the contract terms. Those terms typically speak only to current, not future, entitlement for which the claimant must continuously qualify.