A woman has filed a lawsuit against Unum, alleging her disability insurance claim was suddenly denied after the company had honored the claim for more than a decade.

Prior to filing her disability insurance claim, plaintiff Pamela D. says she worked as a regional consulting manager for Veritas Software Corporation beginning in October 2000.

She says she was supervising 40 or more employees and engaging in complex decision-making that required extreme attention to detail. Physically, she had to stand and walk for up to two hours and sit for at least six hours per day. She was required to travel about 35 percent of the time, the complaint says.

Veritas provided employees with a Long Term Disability plan from Unum Life Insurance Company of America as an employee benefit.

According to the disability insurance claim lawsuit, Pamela was in a rear-end car accident in July 2002. An ambulance purportedly took her to a hospital emergency room.

By March 2003, Pamela says she began to experience pain in her head and neck that was accompanied by nausea and lightheadedness. She says both her head and neck pain became worse when using a computer or traveling. She stopped working for Veritas in October 2004 when her symptoms became debilitating, she claims.

After Pamela’s short term disability income benefit ran out, she says she began receiving long term disability income benefits on Jan. 7, 2005.

Unum purportedly required Pamela to undergo a medical exam in May 2016 by Dr. Pham, a doctor chosen by Unum. Pamela claims Unum stopped benefits in 2016 based on Dr. Pham’s findings that Pamela’s “head and neck pain were somatic in origin.”

Denied Disability Insurance Claim

According to the disability insurance claim lawsuit, Unum has a conflict of interest because it is “the adjudicator, investigator, payer and underwriter of the benefits under the plan.”

Pamela also alleges Unum denied her benefits based on assumptions made of social media posts, photos, surveillance video and other unremarkable presentations that were not based upon her complete medical records.

Unum allegedly committed self-serving acts by “establishing inappropriate criteria for medical findings and ignoring treating medical providers.”

Pamela’s disability insurance claim lawsuit says she suffers from several severe medical problems, including:

• Severe head and neck pain
• Severe migraine headaches
• Vomiting
• Vertigo
• Degenerative disk disease of the spine
• Right shoulder pain
• Cognitive dysfunction with short term memory difficulties
• Difficulties with multi-tasking
• Chronic fatigue
• Numbness and tingling in her feet, hands, arms, and jaw
• Pain and numbness in her left arm
• Speech problems
• Other disorders of her cervical spine

Pamela allegedly has tried a variety of pain-relieving medications and pain management therapies. Acupuncture, biofeedback, Botox injections, cortisone injections, epidurals, and other treatments have failed to provide her with any relief.

Yet she says that after paying for the long term disability insurance claim for more than 10 years, Unum took “the rather remarkable position that Plaintiff’s disabilities are suddenly somatic in origin…”

According to Unum’s 2017 annual report, the company reported record net income of nearly $1 billion last year; record total revenues of $11.3 billion; and close to $600 million in capital returned to its shareholders.

The Disability Insurance Claim Lawsuit is Case No. 1:18-cv-03023 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

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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