Overview - ERISA means Employee Retirement Income Security Act. This is your short-term and long-term insurance benefits at work if you become disabled and can not return to work. In most states there are no protection with a standard attorney fees like Social Security Disability attorney fees that are capped at 25%. I had an attorney quoted his fees at $10,000 but written the contract in a way to take my disability benefits at $600 a month for my entire insurance policy 23 years. My governor in Virginia and the Governor in Maryland where the attorney is located is stating this is legal and they will not intervene to help me or future constituents in there states. My attorney only wrote one appeal and violated many of my rights but the State Bar Assoc. refused to do anything to help me with overwhelming evidence that the attorney was over charging me although he admitted to leaving out information in the contract that would have clearly showed his fees at over $165,000 to write one appeal.  Please sign my petition

Honorable Governor Terry McAuliffe,

This is my online letter in which Governor McAuliffe has not assisted me by meeting with me to help other constituents from experiencing my situation. 

I have previously sent you several letters regarding my situation in which I hired an attorney to write one appeal to get my disability ERISA Insurance reinstated. The attorney quoted me $10,000 but wrote the contract in a way to take my disability benefits for the duration of my policy 23 years at $600 a month. I believe as well as a few other Virginia attorneys stated Mr. Elkind has created a contract that allows him to take advantage/”Screw” his clients. I believe his contract is deceptive and fraudulent for the following reasons.

1. Mr. Elkind did not provide me a good faith estimate of his fees during the interview process, during the signing of his contract process, and during the appeal process time to settle my case.
2. Mr. Elkind contract should be investigated by State and Federal Government agencies because thousands and/or millions of Americans are unprotected from predator attorneys that write a contract that could take years of a disabled person ERISA disability benefits for the term of their ERISA policy (as you know ERISA is not regulated the same as Social Security Disability that set the maximum fee for attorneys) Mr. Elkind verbally quoted me $10,000 on each conversation prior to me signing his contract that led me to believe he was
a. Representing my best interest,
b. I could trust him as my attorney,
c. I was being charged a flat fee of $10,000 for him to write one appeal.
d. As a consumer Mr. Elkind purposely did not properly disclose his fees in order to charge me excessive fees and take control over my ERISA Disability policy for his financial gain.
e. Mr. Elkind set new terms after my case was resolved that he knew he was charging from the initial start of my case by baiting me with a price to represent me of $10,000 but he wrote a contract that benefited his financial interest on a very easy ERISA case.
3. Mr. Elkind acknowledges that he left out important information in his contract that stated he is taking 5 years of my disability benefits at $600 a month as a so call “COURTESY” if I signed the contingency option. He also states it not in the contract that he starts the timeframe of the 5 years from the date the case is resolved with the insurance company and if the insurance company requires him to file another appeal during the 5 year process he resets the time you owe him to another 5 years.
4. In my case Mr. Elkind collected $4,400 when my case should have been resolved
June 2013 (Mr. Elkind was hired December 13, 2012); but Mr. Elkind did not send my primary doctor’s medical records to the insurance company and he was able to extend my case for another 8/9 months. This mean if Mr. Elkind takes 5 years of my disability benefits he will collect $40,000 for a very simple ERISA disability case that did not go to court and was settled very early in the process.
5. Mr. Elkind communicated his fees different than the way he wrote the contract to me. I contacted Mr. Elkind via phone and the transaction was done over the phone and email initially from my house in Virginia. In which I unknowingly signed, faxed and emailed Mr. Elkind the contact agreeing to the contingency option for the past, present, future collection of my disability benefits based on Mr. Elkind verbally advising me “FUTURE” Collection of my benefits was until my case was resolved the same as Social Security Disability Cases. Therefore Mr. Elkind waited until the end of my case to tell me he trapped me in a contract that allows him to take my disability benefits for the duration of my insurance policy for 23 years or $165,000 for writing one appeal.
6. Mr. Elkind’s new terms of taking 5 years of my disability benefits also allows him to collect 33% of a settlement made by my insurance company if they decided to settle because I am totally disabled. In a recent letter Mr. Elkind now states that in most cases like mind the person does not return to work. This is additional evidence that Mr. Elkind planned to benefit financially off my disability policy for work he did not do on my case. But rather he was deceptive on the way he verbally communicated his contract to me and customized his contract in a way to scam me out of my disability benefits.

The concerns that I have with your staff is how I was treated. Your staff has treated me unfairly they refused to investigate parts of my complaint that I could prove that Mr. Elkind was engaged in wrong-doing, by taking more of my disability benefits than 33% that was on the contract and that Mr. Elkind falsified information to me about the reason he had to write a 2nd appeal that was not necessary because the insurance company had provided a letter stating they needed my medical records from my primary doctor to resolve the questions they had about the status of my physical disability in June 2013.

I am a new resident to Virginia from Maryland. I vote, pay taxes on my house, and vehicles and I contribute to my community to make Virginia a better State. Mr. Elkind is an attorney located in Maryland that is seeking Virginia constituents as clients that should be protected from him and other attorneys like him that do not quote a good faith estimate of their fees in advance and in writing, that leave crucial information about their fees out of the contract and operates dishonestly, and rudely to take advantage of their clients.

I deserve better as a citizen of Virginia. I have asked multiple times to meet with you or your staff member in which I do not get a response from your office. The initial letter by Mr. James at VSB was not nice and he accused me of trying to renegotiate my contract with Mr. Elkind who clearly put new terms in the contract when my case was resolved. Mr. Elkind also states in a response to the Maryland Grievance Commission that the way he conducts business is standard practice in the legal industry in which other attorneys would take their clients ERISA disability benefits for the duration of their ERISA policy and I should be happy because he advised me he was taking only 5 years.

Lastly, I am asking for your help. I would like to schedule a meeting with you. As a disabled American I should be protected from a process and a contract that is wrong. I previously sent you an article from Massachusetts that their lawmakers protect their constituents from contracts like the one Mr. Elkind customized to steal my disability benefits. I am putting this letter online because I want other Americans in Virginia to know what type of Governor are you in Virginia. Do you help constituents that vote for you or are you like many other politicians that promise the world to get elected and do very little to help them once you are in office. If you choose not to help me, I believe you are choosing to allow dishonest attorneys that take advantage of disabled people to continue to operate in Virginia. I am your constituent that voted for you, I pay taxes and help others in my community and your staff has treated me as if I am bothering them to write to you for help. As an African American it has been my experience if there is discretionary judgment to be used on a complaint against someone that is white. The staff will act as if that person complaint does not matter and will look for opportunities to protect the person that the complaint is on. Mr. Elkind sent a response in code to assassinate my character as an angry black man that did not want to work, I was not totally disabled because I was young, and I was a product of desperation in which this is typical for disabled clients. Your staff unwillingness to meet with me and discuss my situation after I have written many letters to your office, suggest that my family and I do not matter as Americans and citizens living in Virginia.

Please call Governor McAuliffe and ask for Justice For Delon ERISA Benefits at 804-786-2211 

Please sign my petition