The Impact of a Social Security Disability Determination on ERISA Based Long Term Disability Benefits under a Welfare Benefit Plan

Barbara B. Comerford is the owner of the Law Offices of Barbara B. Comerford in Paramus, New Jersey. She has concentrated her practice for more than 25 years primarily in the area of long term disability insurance claims (ERISA and Disability Income), social security disability law and government disability pensions. Ms. Comerford and her associates have represented thousands of disabled individuals around the United States. She has also successfully represented former professional athletes in disability claims against the NFL and the NHL. She has lectured extensively on ERISA Long term disability insurance and Individual Disability Insurance claims and Social Security Disability law throughout the United States on behalf of many organizations including the American Association of Law Schools, The Honorable Anne E. Thompson American Inn of Court, the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives, the American Association of Trial Lawyers (now the American Association of Justice), the Association of Administrative Law Judges (the professional organization for Social Security Judges); the American Bar Association, the New Jersey Bar Association, The New York and New Jersey Institutes of Continuing Legal Education, and the Bergen County Bar Association (where she founded the Social Security Committee which she continues to Co-Chair). For several years she has also been a presenter on the Insurance Coverage Boot Camp Panel at the request of the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education. She has served on the Executive Committee of the New Jersey Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Committee; and she has been a member of the Legal Committee for the national pediatric traumatic brain injury foundation: The Sarah Jane Foundation in Manhattan. She has also been a Disability Law Commentator for Tru TV. She has served on a number of non-profit Boards including: The NJ Community Health Law Project, Northeast New Jersey Legal Services, the Fair Housing Council of Northern New Jersey, the CFIDS Association of America, the AACFS (a national scientific advisory committee), and the Roy White Foundation. Until 2008, she co-hosted the “Three Circles of Life” radio program on WMCA in New York City which focused on insurance issues and government disability programs, and political topics related to those issues.