Shifting the Burden: I Wonder What David P. Callet, Esq. Thinks of Social Security Disability and Medicare Fraud?

David P. Callet, Esq., formerly a partner at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, is the co-author of "Health-care plan changes for the older employee: The employer as primary provider."

At the time I was terminated by Akin Gump, effective October 29, 1991, David Callet was the billing partner for the client Hoechst-Celanese, for whom I was working as a paralegal.  I do not know what, if any, communications Mr. Callet had with Dennis M. Race, Esq. (the attorney who terminated my employment) concerning the firm's decision to fire me.

Akin Gump was able to avoid the terms of its own disability insurance contract with UNUM Life by failing to advise me upon my job termination on October 29, 1991 that Akin Gump had determined that I suffered from a mental disability and that I was being terminated for that reason.  By the terms of the UNUM Life contract, a beneficiary is required to file a claim within 30 days of onset of disability.  I did not learn that Akin Gump had determined that I was disabled until December 22, 1992 upon my receipt of Akin Gump's Response to Interrogatories and Document Request filed with the D.C. Department of Human Rights, more than a year after the onset of disability, which according to Akin Gump was October 29, 1991.  Irrespective of my right under COBRA to retain disability insurance coverage, my right to file a claim with UNUM Life lapsed, by the express terms of the UNUM Life contract, as of November 29, 1991.

Akin Gump has, in effect, avoided increases in its insurance premium liability under a private disability insurance contract by deceptively withholding material facts from a beneficiary regarding the nature and onset of disability thereby preventing the beneficiary from filing a timely claim, resulting in the shifting of financial burden of benefits payments from a private insurer onto the U.S. Social Security Administration.