Legal defense update

If you filed a legal defense claim for the Letter of Reprimand you received for not providing proof of vaccination by October 25th, 2021 and you were denied by our legal defense plan for coverage, you must file an appeal. I drafted a letter asking for reconsideration and sent it to all national board members, legal defense board members, and national trustees. Our state FOP President Dave Moody had a webinar with the FOP National board members and trustees. He fought for us to be covered despite the date of September 15th deadline that legal defense has been using. The national president stated that our members who were denied need to file a detailed appeal for coverage. I will get in touch with the national office tomorrow to obtain the appeal form and then circulate it to all of you. There is no clear understanding as to whether or not your appeal will be granted. I will definitely post some advice on what you need to make clear on the appeal, in order to give you the best chance to get approval.

If you never filed a legal defense claim but received a letter of reprimand, you need to file your claim. If you signed up after you received your LOR, it is likely that you will not be covered by the legal defense. If you signed up after September 17th, but before October 25th, my hope is that they will listen to reason and approve your claim.

For future discipline on the Covid mandate issue, it is unclear if you will be covered or not. We are working to make sure as many people are covered as possible. If you just recently signed up, there is no better example of why you need to be a covered FOP member, before an incident happens. I will keep you updated with any future developments. To file a legal defense claim call the number on the back of your legal defense card: 1-866-857-3276. You should also file a legal defense claim form, which can be found on the legal defense page of our website.