A Georgia resident filed a bad faith insurance lawsuit against Unum Insurance alleging the company wrongfully denied his long-term disability benefits claim.

If a person is denied disability claims, they can either accept that decision or appeal for another review by the insurance company. The insurance company must explain to the reason for the denied disability claims. Appealing that decision requires filing a lawsuit.

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

According to the Unum denied disability claim lawsuit, John, who worked as a flight crew scheduler for Global Aviation Holdings, went out of work in February 2013 due to syncope and angina. Unum denied long-term disability benefits, according to his lawsuit. Unum’s reason for John’s denied disability claim was that he had a sedentary occupation and that his doctors had stated that he could perform sedentary work.

John appealed Unum’s decision, providing evidence that his job requires the ability to work in any shift under stressful conditions, rendering him unable to perform his job due to his continuing heart problems, including a heart catheterization, blockage in his left carotid artery, as well as kidney and right leg blockage. John submitted updated medical records to Unum documenting his condition.

Despite providing medical evidence, including a diagnosis from his heart specialist, Unum Insurance, denied John’s appeal for payment of his disability insurance benefits, the lawsuit said.

Unum Denied Disability Claims

Unum (formerly known as Unum Provident and First Unum) has been accused of systematically denying disability claims for thousands of policyholders over the past two decades. Unum and its subsidiaries have been subject to numerous bad faith insurance lawsuits.

Some examples of Unum’s alleged insurance claim denial tactics include:

• Changing disability insurance policies after claims are filed (and without the authorization or knowledge of policy holders)
• Improperly investigating the claim and obtaining opinions from unqualified people/supposed experts
• Misreading medical records, often by their independent medical examiners
• Demanding repeated requests for independent medical examinations or denying a claim without any medical examination
• Refusing to acknowledge their disability, especially mental disorders, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome
• Arguing that the claim is a pre-existing condition
• Denying a claim with the intent to wear the claimant down to a lower settlement
• Partially paying a claim for total disability
• Use of detectives, friends, co-workers and neighbors in an attempt to discredit the disability

John G. is seeking to recover payment of all long-term disability benefits withheld pursuant to section 502(a) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) with back interest, reinstatement of his life insurance, and waiver of all past and current premiums, as well as attorney’s fees and cost.

The Unum Denied Disability Claim Lawsuit is Case No. 3:15-cv-00099-TCB, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.