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Terrence A. Low - Northampton, MA
4 Market Street Northampton, MA 01060
Law Offices of Terrence A. Low and Anthony J. Canata
Northampton Disability Insurance (ERISA) Appeals Lawyer
Overview
Terry's career as a lawyer began in 1984 after graduating from Vermont Law School and the University of Pennsylvania. He worked for 9 years with Gerard Pellegrini, founder of the firm Pellegrini and Seeley in Springfield, where the main focus of practice was workers' compensation and personal injury claims.
Terry has represented individuals at hundreds of hearings and trials, including may jury trials and appeals to higher courts, including the Massachusetts Appeals Court and the Supreme Judicial Court, where 1989 Terry won a case, favorable to the consumer, which established a new legal standard in Massachusetts for the sale of food products. Phillips vs. Town of West Springfield is still the leading food warranty case in Massachusetts.
Many of the cases Terry has handled for clients in the workers' compensation and personal injury areas of law have been published in trial reports, local and national new articles, law journals, judicial decisions and legal treatises.
In 1993, Terry started his own law practice at the corner of Bridge and Main Streets in Springfield. He has a strong commitment to the Springfield area because it offers access to the state and federal civil and administrative courts, but also because his great grandfather, grandfather and father worked the majority of their careers on the corner of Bridge and Main Streets.
Terry has chosen to keep his practice focused on individuals needing advice and action against insurers and corporations that resist or deny claims of personal injury and disability. Recently he has focused his attention in the area of private disability plans and employee sponsored (ERISA) plans, an area of particular abuse by insurers who are aided by federal laws allowing them to circumvent traditional state remedies. Terry believes this is a challenging area of law and one that ultimately needs federal legislative reform.
Terry believes that when someone has been injured or develops physical, mental or emotional incapacity, he or she deserves full attention to all areas of life that have been affected, and all means of providing justice and financial relief.
An injury on the job, for example, often involve a Social Security Disability and Medicare claim, or a so called third party claim against someone who was careless in causing the injury. The injury may involve retirement options, Medicare or Medicaid liens or private health care liens. It may involve discrimination, wrongful termination, or medical malpractice. Injury and loss of work may require detailed analysis of earning capacity loss, return to work options and use of federal job protection under Family and Medical Leave Act.
Terry has developed skill in all aspects and potential effects of personal injury and disability, and offers wide-ranging advice and services in these areas of law.
Lawyers often say they handle personal injury due to an automobile collision, but don't handle a Social Security claim. Often an inexperienced lawyer or a television or yellow pages advertiser will claim expertise in workers' compensation, only to refer the case to another lawyer or give the work to an associate. Other times that same lawyer will take the workers' compensation claim without having any experience in third-party claims nor negligent physician claims.
Terry believes this piecemeal approach is a disservice. It either results in an injured person remaining ignorant of all of his or her options, or the referral to another attorney after losing much time and energy.
About Terrence A. Low
Practice Areas
- Disability Insurance (ERISA) Appeals
- ERISA Federal Litigation
- Private Disability Insurance Litigation
- Civil Litigation
- Personal Injury
- Workers' Compensation
- General Trial Practice
- Social Security -- Disability
- Administrative Hearings and Appeals
- Disability Insurance Claims
Qualifications
Bar Admissions
- Massachusetts, 1985
- U.S. District Court District of Connecticut
- U.S. Federal Courts, 1984
- U.S. Court of Appeals 1st Circuit
Other Affiliations
- American Bar Association, 2006 - 2007 (Vice-Chair)
- American Association for Justice, 1990 - 2006 (Member)
- Workers' Compensation and Employers' Liability Law Committee of the American Bar Association, 2008 - Present (Vice-Chair)
Classes and Seminars
- Trial Practice, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE), 1991 - 1995
Pro Bono Activities
- DisabilityLawyers.org, 2006 - Present
Education
- Vermont Law School, South Royalton, Vermont, 1984
J.D. - The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1981
B.A.
Honors: Dean's List
Major: Political Science
Articles
Published Works
- Irrational Predispositions, American Bar Association, Spring, 2007
- Disabled While Working, American Bar Association, 2010
- Eleven Ways to Assure Success of a Disability Claim
Achievements
Honors
- Inducted into the ABA College of workers' compensation lawyers, March 6, 2010 - Present
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