A woman filed a lawsuit alleging the Unum Life Insurance Company of America unfairly denied her long term disability application.

Plaintiff Jean H. filed the long term disability application lawsuit on Nov. 15, 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

According to the lawsuit, Jean was an established beneficiary of her long term disability benefits she obtained through her employer at Huntington Hospital. Jean says that she was employed by Huntington Hospital as a certified surgical technician. Some of her occupation responsibilities included setting up for surgery and assisting other nurses in patient transfer from bed to operating table.

However, Jean says she suffered severe injuries when she helped prevent a six hundred pound patient from falling off the surgical table. She says she suffered a tear in the tendons of her elbow and other injuries to her upper extremity.

She says that she eventually returned to work. However, since the date of the injury, she says in her lawsuit that she has continuously had to “find creative ways to escape having to strain or use her left arm” and she filed a long term disability application with Unum.

According to the lawsuit, Unum paid two years of long term disability benefits. However, Unum allegedly denied the continuation of her disability benefits based on one of her physician’s claims that she could do “light work.”

Jean says that she is still unable to complete the heavy lifting and other tasks required by her job due to her workplace injury and that Unum wrongly denied her long term disability application. She hopes that through the filing of this lawsuit that Unum can restore her long term disability benefits.

Overview: Filing a Long Term Disability Application Lawsuit

Unum Life Insurance Company, America’s largest disability insurance company, has been facing a number a lawsuits from plan beneficiaries who say that the company wrongly denied their long term disability application. The company employs nearly 100,000 in offices throughout the country and provides short term and long term disability benefits.

Consumer lawsuit alleged unfair denial of their insurance benefits; particularly for denials of long term disability applications that had previously been approved. Accusations against Unum include unfair and bad faith insurance practices, underpayment of insurance benefits, and unreasonable delays in the processing of claims.

Lawsuits against Unum accuse the company of placing profits and revenue over consumer rights to long term disability benefits. Often, the filing of lawsuits are a last case resort when long term disability benefits have been denied. Consumers, at this point, have exhausted all other remedies, including administrative appeals and renegotiating with the company over their long term disability benefits.

Unum handles a large number of insurance policies in the United States — approximately 40 percent. However, a 2002 investigation reported on 60 Minutes revealed that the company was systematically denying disability insurance claims filed by thousands of policyholders.

The motive was profit, according Unum employees interviewed by 60 Minutes. They reported that Unum requires employees to meet a claim-denial quota each month and also stands accused of firing physicians who refuse to support claim denials based on policy holder’s medical records.

The Long Term Disability Application Lawsuit is Case No. 2:18-cv-09645, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Do YOU have a legal claim? Fill out the form on this page now for a free, immediate, and confidential case evaluation. The bad faith insurance attorneys who work with Top Class Actions will contact you if you qualify to let you know if an individual lawsuit or Unum class action lawsuit is best for you. [In general, Unum bad faith lawsuits are filed individually by each plaintiff and are not class actions.] Hurry — statutes of limitations may apply.

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