A woman suffering from long term disability resulting from a vehicle accident is the most recent plaintiff to file an Unum claims denial lawsuit.

Plaintiff Denise M. says she was a beneficiary of defendant Unum’s group benefits policy and was wrongfully denied the benefits for which she had paid. She says she was informed that she was no longer covered as the result of a corporate takeover of her employer’s company.

Denise is one of thousands of workers who have paid into an Unum disability plan, only to find themselves denied benefits after filing a claim. According to shunned claimants and consumer advocates, Unum claims denial has been part of the insurer’s mode of operation for many years.

Facts of the Case

Denise says she was employed by Journal Media Group, Inc. (JMG). During her tenure, she paid into a disability benefits plan maintained by the company for their employees and administered by the defendant.

According to her complaint, Journal Media was taken over by national newspaper conglomerate Gannett in April 2016. At that time, Denise says the new Human Resources Department assured all employees that their disability insurance benefits would continue.

Denise says that she and her fellow employees were not informed that they had been switched to the Gannett Co. Welfare Benefit Plan, a self-funded insurance plan that covered short and long-term disability benefits. She had been injured a few months earlier in a traffic accident and had been unable to work due to head, spine and torso injuries.

In May, approximately 7 weeks after Gannett’s takeover, defendant Unum approved her for short-term disability benefits under the old JMG plan. These were paid through the new company.

When it became apparent that her disability was going to be long-term, Denise says she asked an Unum representative what was required in order to ensure that long-term disability benefits would continue. She was informed that her short-term payments would automatically roll over into long-term benefits on Aug. 15.

However, Denise says the date passed, and her benefits ceased. Repeated inquiries to Gannett went unanswered, she claims. She says she finally contacted Unum, only to be informed that she was not covered by a long-term benefits plan. Denise claims that Gannett failed to tell her that she had been switched to a company plan. Neither her new employer nor Unum would respond to any further inquiries into the matter, she says.

About Unum Claims Denial

Unum, based in Chattanooga, Tenn., is the nation’s largest provider of disability coverage, administering approximately 40 percent of all such plans in the U.S.

Claimants have reported trouble with getting their Unum benefits for years. According to a segment of the CBS news program 60 Minutes aired in 2002, Unum employees were held to a monthly claim-denial quota and were given financial incentives to meet those quotas. Conversely, employees who failed to cooperate were penalized, and in some cases, terminated.

To date, there have been over 3,000 lawsuits against Unum over claims denial. In some cases, these lawsuits have resulted in settlements worth millions of dollars.

Denise M.’s Unum Claims Denial lawsuit is Civil Action No. 3:19-cv-399, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas.

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.

Learn More