Unum Life Insurance Company is facing a disability insurance lawsuit, filed by a benefits specialist from Florida, alleging that Unum denied her disability claim in bad faith.

According to the Unum lawsuit, Plaintiff Trisha M. suffered from a number of disabling conditions while working as a senior benefits specialist for an insurance office. The Unum lawsuit states that she suffered from abnormal heartbeat, fibromyalgia, back problems, a torn rotator cuff, COPD, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other conditions.

Trisha’s Unum lawsuit cites her disability insurance policy, stating that “you are disabled when Unum determines that: you are limited from performing the material and substantial duties of your regular occupation due to sickness or injury and you have a 20% or more loss in your index monthly earnings due to the same sickness or illness.”

The Unum lawsuits states that Unum denied Trisha her disability benefits without just cause. Even after she filed several appeals, Unum continued to deny her disability benefits. The Unum lawsuit accuses Unum of acting in bad faith. Bad faith is a legal term meaning that one party is trying to get out of their contractual obligations.

Unum Bad Faith Insurance Allegations

A 2002 exposé of Unum on the television newsmagazine 60 Minutes made serious allegations against the insurance company. The segment included the then-California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi speculating that Unum uses an “economic equation,” balancing the risk of bad publicity and lawsuits against the benefit of not paying out on legitimate disability insurance claims. Per the 60 Minutes segment, Unum has faced thousands of bad faith disability insurance lawsuits.

Additionally in 2002, Unum lost a case in San Francisco Federal Court, costing them a $7.5 million dollar judgement. In this case, the court found that Unum acted “in bad faith,” and used “bias medical examiners” to justify denying reasonable claims. The Federal Court also issued an injunction to stop the insurance company from continuing these bad faith insurance practices.

Trisha’s Unum lawsuit seeks to have her disability insurance reinstated, have Unum pay her legal fees, and back-dated unpaid disability benefits with interest.

This Unum Bad Faith Insurance Lawsuit is Case No. 0578, in the Circuit Court of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, In and For Marion County, Florida.