Joshua Bachrach (Partner-Philadelphia, PA) and Angela Heim (Of Counsel-Philadelphia, PA) obtained dismissal of all claims against the firm’s disability carrier client in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The plaintiff stopped working after developing acute autoimmune hepatitis, which caused severe abdominal pain and fatigue. She subsequently submitted a claim under her employer’s long-term disability plan, insured by our client. Although the plaintiff’s claim was approved, benefits ended a few years later after her condition stabilized. She argued that she remained disabled by fatigue caused by her medical condition and treatment medications. The court noted that the doctor on whom the plaintiff relied identified symptoms not documented in his contemporaneous office notes. The treating doctor also refused to discuss plaintiff’s condition with a peer-review doctor retained by our client. The court explained that our client was not required to accept the plaintiff’s reported complaints “at face value.” After conducting a de novo review of the evidence, the court concluded that the plaintiff failed to carry her burden of proving that her illness prevented her from working at the time the benefits ended.