Joseph McDonald,

Help When Insurance Won't Cover Your Long-Term Disability

Joseph McDonald is a long-term disability attorney at Horenstein, Nicholson & Blumenthal (HNB) in Ohio who helps people deal with insurance companies refusing to award full compensation for health problems that disrupt work.

He has 34 years of legal experience, including extensive work on ERISA benefit claims. Private long-term disability (LTD) insurance policies that you get as an employee benefit at work are typically covered by a federal law called ERISA — Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Insurance companies often refuse, shortchange or cut off benefits under these plans. Joseph guides individuals covered by these complicated ERISA long-term disability plans as they fight to secure everything they are entitled to receive when they have a claim.

He is nationally known for his work in ERISA long-term disability law. He has won multiple cases on behalf of his clients in federal courts in Ohio.

“These employer-sponsored plans are hard to understand, and they are governed by unique and often unfair laws and contract terms,” he said.

Joseph says he is motivated by respect for hard-working people in Ohio, their work ethic, and the importance of their work to their identities.

“As a result of dedicating my practice to people separated involuntarily from employment by medical problems, I think I am living up to what it means to be a lawyer. By applying my skill, energy, and creativity to these problems, I am helping restore the client’s personal dignity and making sure that they obtain results promised in insurance policies that supply benefits.”

HNB has long helped Ohioans with other kinds of disability benefits — Social Security Disability and veterans’ disability. Joseph expands the firm’s support for people struggling with health and economic troubles to those covered by private LTD insurance.

Before joining HNB, Joseph co-owned and operated a law firm with his wife for 20 years, handling LTD appeals, short-term disability insurance appeals, life insurance disputes, Social Security Disability claims and personal injury cases, including wrongful death claims.

He also served as general counsel to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission from January 2023 through April 2026 in Columbus, where he represented the Commission in its public meetings and when it adjudicated discrimination cases.

He considered it an honor to serve this important commission, which was created by state law over 60 years ago.

Joseph was first admitted to practice law in Ohio in 1991. He is also admitted to practice in the Federal District Courts of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

He is admitted to practice in many other Federal District Courts in neighboring states and in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Joseph has lived in Dayton since 1988, loves it and loves the people of the Miami Valley and all over Ohio. “I am eternally grateful that I can practice law here,” he said.

HNB has helped thousands of Ohioans claim hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits from our offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton.

People in Ohio know what we’re about: “Helping me, that’s HNB.”