The one thing our clients have in common is that they are brave. We respect and acknowledge our clients' courage in living with their illness and for taking the step to contact us to pursue the benefits they are entitled to.  We never take our clients' trust in us for granted.

 

It is important to us that our clients feel heard, understood and most all, empowered.  When it may seem like they have no control over anything in their lives, we hope that deciding to fight for their benefits will help them feel strong when they feel weak, in every other way.  

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Our clients have cognitively demanding occupations. 

 

Our clients are typically, professionals working in education, law, government, healthcare, finance, and technology.  They are typically middle to high-earners (earning at least $90,000 per year).  Their occupations require a high level of cognitive and psychological function.  They may have their own private/individual Long Term Disability policies or they may group LTD coverage through their employer or association.  Some of our past and current clients include:

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• Dentists

• Lawyers

• Accountants

• Veterinarians

• Teachers & Education Workers

• Doctors and other Healthcare Professionals

• Government of Canada Employees (non-union)

• Professionals with Individual/Private Policies

• Banking and Investment Professionals

• Electricians and Other Skilled Trades

• Senior Management

• Business Owners

• ​IT Professionals

• Consultants

• Engineers

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Our clients have "invisible" disabilities. 

 

Our clients come to us because they have been able to prove that they are disabled to their insurance company.  Their conditions are often extremely difficult to prove and often referred to as "invisible disabilities".  The insurance companies are trained to look for objective evidence of disability and for some disabilities, no such evidence exists. 

 

Insurance companies also fail to consider the very real and serious interplay between physical symptoms and psychological symptoms; preferring to assess each type of condition individually, allowing it to draw the conclusion that none of the conditions on their own prevents our client from working.  

 

Nearly all of our clients have depression and anxiety (many also suffer PTSD).  For some, mental illness is their main disabling condition and for others it is secondary to some other condition such as chronic pain, chronic fatigue, concussion, long-COVID, neurological or immunological and other invisible conditions. 

 

If a client has been managing their mental health well prior to becoming disabled, the denial of an LTD claim may trigger mental illness such as anxiety and depression.  If our client has a history of mental illness or if the primary cause of their disability is mental illness, then the denial of their LTD claim will may seriously aggravate their condition, often causing a significant set back and delay in their recovery. 

 

Insurance companies often rely on non-medical evidence of functionality to deny a claim.  They may rely on our client's ability to care for their children or drive a car or grocery shop as evidence that the they are able to work.  They may ignore our client's subjective reports of symptoms, entirely.  The insurance company will usually rely on the opinions of its own internal medical consultants who review our our client's medical records and then draw conclusions that run counter to the opinions of our clients' own treating doctors and specialists.    

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Our clients have multiple medical conditions.​

 

Our clients normally have a complex combination of symptoms and medical conditions, which are sometimes undiagnosed, despite consultation with various specialists and despite having undergone investigations and testing for a whole host of conditions. 

 

The cases we take on are complex.  Some of the most common of our clients' disabling conditions include one or more (and sometimes many more) of the following:

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• Anxiety

• Depression

• Panic

• Addiction

• Burnout

• PTSD

• Fibromyalgia

• ​Post-COVID Conditions

• Chronic Pain Syndrome

• Post-COVID Conditions

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

• Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

• ​Post-Concussive Syndrome

• Immunological Conditions

• Neurological Conditions

• Post-Cancer Treatment

• Lyme Disease

• Endometriosis

• Migraines

• Undiagnosed Symptoms

• Many other conditions

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Our clients have complex mental health conditions.

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Our clients may be disabled from a mental illness or they may have multiple disabling conditions of which mental illness is one.  Some may have developed anxiety and depression as a result of struggling with illness and the inability to work or as a result of the insurance companies' treatment and denial of their benefits.

 

We are committed to not causing our clients more stress in the litigation or triggering a trauma response.  We believe that by retaining us, our clients can focus on their own health and recovery as we take over their dispute from them. 

 

We are a certified Trauma Informed Service Provider and we are all certified in Mental Health First Aid.  We are not mental health care providers. Because our clients are struggling with their mental health, we have a duty to accommodate them by avoiding causing them additional stress or anxiety. We also genuinely care about the clients we take on and we don't want to say or do anything inadvertently that might cause them distress.

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Our clients trust us to prove they are disabled. 

 

For more than 20 years (since even before some of these conditions were widely-known by name), Courtney Mulqueen has been litigating disability insurance claims for "Invisible conditions".  She has the added advantage of valuable "insider" insight and perspectives from having defended claims for invisible disabilities LTD claims, early in her career. 

 

We know what information and strategies will be necessary to successfully persuade insurance companies that our clients' conditions are severe and impact functioning to the extent that they are unable to perform their occupations.  We also know how to expose the insurance companies' risk of damages for bad faith, and emotional and financial distress damages.  We strongly believe that they should be held accountable for the harm they have caused our clients.

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Our clients are from Markham, Greater Toronto Area, throughout Ontario, and beyond.  

 

Our clients come to us from near and far.  Whether they are our neighbours here in Markham, from other communities in York Region and the Greater Toronto Area, from under-serviced communities across Ontario, or even from other parts of Canada, we are able to provide our same high quality legal services, in person and virtually.

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Our clients are always welcome to meet us at our Markham Office or at our Toronto Meeting Room.  

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In today's post-COVID world, virtual meetings seem to have become the norm.  We know we have some clients who would much prefer to come meet with us, in person.  Some of these clients find that they are better able to process information in person.  Other clients want to meet us "in real life" to get a better sense of who we are--after all, an LTD matter is extremely personal and critical to a person's financial future.  We never take our clients' trust for us for granted.   

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We are committed to never turning down a request for an in-person meeting and we will always aim to make our time together with our clients as less stressful as possible.

 

*We do ask that if we or our client has cold or flu symptoms, we reschedule or move our meeting to a telephone or video call. We are also always happy to wear a mask, at our client's request.

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To learn more about how we accommodate our clients and our our locations please contact us.

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Our clients have been served virtually since 2016.​​

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We know that some of our clients have a hard time getting out of bed some days.  The thought of having to come see us can be overwhelming. They would rather speak with us on the telephone or by way a video meeting.  We like to tell those clients that we completely understand and we will meet with them how and when is best for them. 

 

We also understand when our clients need to cancel on us.  We tell them that there is no need to apologize; we know they are struggling; and we are happy to reschedule for another time.

 

We like to tell our clients that they might not need leave their beds at all for us to sue their insurance company for them.  All cases are different, but since COVID, nearly all of our cases have been done entirely virtually.

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We have been representing clients virtually since 2016, long before COVID. We have been using technology to make our client's lives easier for a very long time.  We are excited to be continually adapting and adopting new technologies to improve how we work and how we help our clients in their cases.

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To learn more about what we do and if are able to accept you as a client, please contact us.  Initial consultations are always free and confidential.  We will listen to your story and evaluate your case.  We will provide you with information, insights and suggestions.  If we are not able to accept you as a client, we promise do our best to help you find the assistance you need.