Key legal question
Whether the insured person was entitled to free legal assistance in the insurer's administrative proceedings.
Extracted holding
The request failed because the pension claim was already objectively hopeless when the legal-aid request was filed.
Extracted reasoning
The Court held that success prospects must be assessed at the time of the application (5 December 2009). The claimant knew the 29 August 2006 expert report, which supported full work capacity in adapted sedentary work, and she did not substantively challenge that this rendered the pension claim hopeless.