An Arizona resident filed a bad faith insurance lawsuit against Unum Life Insurance Company of America, alleging the company wrongfully denied her long-term disability benefits claim.

If a person is denied disability benefits, he or she can either accept that decision or appeal for another review by the insurance company. The insurance company must explain the reason for the denied disability claims.

Once the appeal process is exhausted, individuals may pursue the benefits by filing an claim denial lawsuit, such as the one filed by Plaintiff Linda P.

Countless Unum Insurance policyholders like Linda have allegedly experienced the bad faith insurance practices that Unum uses to deny appeals or deny disability claims all together.

According to the Unum claim denial lawsuit, Linda, who worked as a Human Resources Representative for National Oilwell Varco, left work in March 2012 due to a serious medical condition. Unum paid Linda’s long-term disability benefits for 24-months and then wrongfully terminated these benefits, according to her Unum lawsuit.

Unum’s reason for Linda’s denied disability claim was that her medical condition was limited to 24-months of disability benefits, according to the terms of the policy.

Linda appealed Unum’s decision, providing medical, vocational and lay-witness evidence that demonstrated that she met the definition of disabled set forth in her policy and that her claim was not subject to any limitation.

She also claims in her disability insurance lawsuit that after submitting this evidence, Unum only conducted a biased “paper review” by a physician who, according to Linda, may have had an incentive to protect his consultant relationship with the insurance provider.

The Unum Lawsuit is Case No. 2:15-cv-02438-DKD, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

Unum Bad Faith Insurance Practices

Unum is a Fortune 500 insurance company based in Chattanooga, Tenn. One of the biggest and most established employee benefits companies in the world, Unum works with 100,000 employers in the U.S. to provide:

• Disability insurance (short- and long-term) to replace income when an employee is unable to work, whether due to an illness, injury, routine maternity leave, etc.
• Group life insurance
• Long-term care insurance (LTCI)
• Supplemental health and critical illness benefits (to help workers cover financial gaps in their medical plans)

With a workforce of 10,000, Unum is the market leader for disability insurance. However, Unum has been the defendant in thousands of bad faith insurance lawsuits in the past two decades regarding insurance bad faith practices such as:

• Unfounded denial of insurance claims
• Underpayment of insurance benefits
• Unreasonable stalling and delays in claim processing

These bad faith insurance practices have been systematic and were recently documented by the television program 60 Minutes. The program interviewed employees of the company who stated that the company’s goal was to close claims and celebrated and rewarded adjusters who denied injured people the benefits they paid for.

The program also featured a physician who claimed he was fired by Unum after he refused to cooperate in helping the company deny benefits to injured people. According to the 60 Minutes program, Unum’s policies have led to nearly 3,000 lawsuits in the past five years.

Unum Lawsuits

Unum lawsuits
filed against the insurance provider allege the company committed fraud and breach of contract. Many Unum lawsuits, like Linda’s, stem from denial of legitimate Unum long-term disability insurance claims in which the insurance company allegedly unfairly and improperly fails to compensate the insured for a loss covered by their policy, or unreasonably delays making payments due under the policy.

If you or a loved one have suffered a serious disability while insured by Unum and have been denied disability benefits, you may be eligible to file an Unum lawsuit.