Denial Lawsuits Against The Standard: ERISA Appeals and Rulings

If Standard Insurance Company has denied your long-term disability claim, you can sue — but in almost every case you must first exhaust an internal appeal, and that appeal, not the eventual lawsuit, is where a Standard Insurance disability denial lawsuit is usually won or lost. Because most of The Standard’s disability policies are employer-sponsored, they fall under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which sets tight deadlines, limits the evidence a judge can consider, and strips out the punitive damages available in ordinary insurance disputes.¹

Why ERISA Controls Most Claims Against The Standard

The Standard is one of the largest group disability insurers in the country, and the bulk of its long-term disability coverage is sold to employers as a group benefit. That structure pulls the dispute into ERISA, and ERISA reshapes it in three ways that matter to you.

First, you cannot walk into court and file suit after a denial. You have to complete the plan’s internal appeal process first.²

Second, if the case reaches a federal judge, the judge will generally look only at the administrative record — the file that existed at the end of that internal appeal. New medical records, new expert opinions, and new test results submitted for the first time in litigation are typically excluded.³

Third, ERISA preempts state-law bad faith claims. Even if The Standard wrongly denied your benefits, the worst it usually faces is being ordered to pay what it owed in the first place, plus potentially your attorney fees. No punitive damages. No bad faith penalties.¹ Claimant-side attorneys describe this as an attrition model: because the downside of denying is low, insurers benefit from every claimant who gives up.

On top of that, many plans give the insurer discretionary authority over benefit decisions. When that language is in the plan, courts review the denial under a deferential “abuse of discretion” standard and will uphold the decision unless it was unreasonable or arbitrary. If The Standard violates ERISA’s procedural rules, a court may apply a less deferential “de novo” review instead, looking at the evidence from scratch.³

The Internal Appeal Decides the Case

Under ERISA, you generally have 180 days from the date of the denial letter to submit your appeal. The Standard then has 45 days to decide, with one permitted 45-day extension.²

The denial letter must tell you why the claim was rejected, what evidence the insurer relied on, and the appeal deadline. You have a right to request the full claims file, including internal memos, adjuster notes, and the medical reviews the insurer used against you.⁴

Because the record usually closes when the appeal ends, this window is your one chance to build the file a judge will eventually see. That means submitting updated medical records, functional capacity evaluations, detailed statements from treating physicians, vocational assessments, and symptom logs before the deadline passes, along with a written appeal that answers each specific reason the insurer cited for denial.⁴

There is one procedural upside to ERISA’s strict timing. If The Standard misses its own deadline — for instance, failing to decide within 45 days plus any permitted extension — you may be treated as having exhausted administrative remedies automatically, and the insurer may lose the benefit of the deferential standard of review.⁵

What The Standard Typically Cites When It Denies

Lawsuits and claimant accounts describe a recurring set of reasons behind denials and terminations. Knowing which one applies to you tells you what your appeal has to rebut.

Insufficient medical evidence. The insurer says the records do not document the severity of the condition, often after an internal file review by a doctor who never examined you.⁶

Termination after prior approval. Benefits already being paid are cut off on the theory of medical improvement without new supporting evidence, or based on a selectively used independent medical examination.⁷

The “any occupation” switch. Most long-term disability policies pay benefits for the first 24 months if you cannot perform your own occupation, then shift to a stricter “any occupation” test. The Standard often terminates benefits at that transition, arguing you could perform some form of work, even if it looks nothing like your prior career.⁷

The 24-month mental disorder cap. Many of The Standard’s policies limit benefits to 24 months when a disability is “caused or contributed to” by a mental disorder. Disputes often arise in mixed-condition cases where a physical impairment is present alongside depression or anxiety.

Surveillance and social media. The Standard conducts video surveillance and monitors online activity, then points to isolated moments of normal function — running errands, attending a family event — as evidence that you can work full time, without accounting for pain, fatigue, or symptom variability.⁸

Vocational reports. Vocational experts retained by the insurer identify hypothetical jobs you could supposedly perform, even when those jobs bear little relationship to your actual skills or physical limitations.⁸

How Courts Have Ruled Against The Standard

Several published decisions show what a successful challenge looks like when the administrative record supports the claimant.

Stephens v. Standard Insurance Co.

A court found The Standard’s termination of Norma Jean Stephens’ long-term disability benefits “wrong and unreasonable.” Two of the company’s own reviewing physicians had recommended an in-person examination; The Standard never conducted one. It set aside the opinions of Stephens’ treating physicians and its own first two reviewers — all of whom confirmed disability — and relied on a third and fourth physician whose findings supported denial. The court characterized this as prioritizing the “least costly result” and ordered benefits reinstated.⁹

Kitterman v. Standard Insurance Co.

Dr. James F. Kitterman challenged The Standard’s decision to end his benefits after 24 months under the mental disorder limitation. He suffered from depression, migraines, and anxiety. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin, in Case No. 09-CV-6294-TC (D. Oregon, 2011), ruled that the plan’s “Mental Disorder” provision was ambiguous. Applying the doctrine that ambiguities in insurance contracts are read against the insurer, the court found that Kitterman’s migraines were a physical condition causing his depression, and because the migraines were independently disabling — a point The Standard had conceded — he was entitled to benefits beyond the 24-month cap.¹⁰

Nevitt v. Standard Insurance Co.

George Cornelius Nevitt, an attorney, received long-term disability benefits after a 2001 fall left him with cervical spine injuries, migraines, and cognitive impairment. In April 2007, The Standard invoked the 24-month mental disorder limitation and cut off his benefits, asserting that depression and anxiety contributed to the disability. In Nevitt v. Standard Insurance Company (N.D. Ga., 2009), the court granted Nevitt summary judgment, calling the insurer’s decision “clearly wrong” and “substantively unreasonable.” It found Nevitt independently disabled by incapacitating migraines not caused by a mental disorder, and held that The Standard had failed to adequately address the medical evidence documenting their severity.¹¹

The common thread across these rulings is unusually stark evidence in the record: the insurer’s own reviewers recommending exams that never happened, conceded physical impairments treated as mental ones, medical evidence of severe symptoms left unaddressed. That is the kind of file the internal appeal has to build.

When You Have More Options Than ERISA Allows

Not every Standard policy is governed by ERISA. Individual disability policies purchased outside an employer plan, and group plans offered by government or religious employers, generally sit outside the statute. If your policy is one of those, you can sue without first exhausting an internal appeal, introduce new evidence during the litigation itself, and pursue bad faith damages under state insurance law.¹ Confirming which category your policy falls into is a threshold question, because it changes almost every strategic decision from there.

What Suing Actually Gets You

In an ERISA case, a successful lawsuit typically means an order requiring The Standard to pay the back benefits it wrongly withheld and to reinstate ongoing benefits, plus the possibility of attorney fees. Punitive damages and emotional distress awards are not available.¹

Reported individual settlements against The Standard have ranged from roughly $130,000 to $350,000, though outcomes vary widely with the policy terms, the strength of the medical evidence, and the jurisdiction.¹² Whatever the eventual number, the leverage that produces it is almost always built during the 180-day appeal window, not after.

1
Bryant Law Group. What to Do If The Standard Denies Your Long-Term Disability Claim
2
Debofsky Law. Appeal Disability Insurance Benefits Denial Timelines and Tips
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Garner Disability Law. Why Your ERISA Disability Appeal Is the Most Important Step
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LongTermDisabilityLawyer.com. What Is the First Step in Appealing a Denial From The Standard
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Debofsky Law. Sue Disability Insurer for Delays
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LongTermDisabilityLawyer.com. What Are Common Reasons People Sue The Standard Insurance Company
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Newfield Law Group. Standard Insurance Company Disability Claims
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Nick Ortiz Law. The Standard Insurance Company Disability Claims
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LongTermDisability.net. Court Rules Standard Insurance Company Wrong for Terminating Benefits
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CaseMine. Kitterman v. Standard Insurance Company, 09-CV-6294-TC
11
CaseMine. Nevitt v. Standard Insurance Company, 1:08-CV-3641-TWT
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Sokolove Law. The Standard Long-Term Disability Denial