Plaintiff Mark H., former vice president of an industrial company, filed an Unum ERISA lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division on May 8, 2017. It was filed in Orange County because the plaintiff is a long-time resident of San Clemente, California.

The plaintiff establishes his complaint in this Unum ERISA lawsuit with the idea of recovering Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) benefits as well as all attorney and other legal fees.  In addition, he hopes to clarify and enforce his rights under this act.

What is ERISA?

According to the federal department of labor website, ERISA “is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans.”

The defendant in the Unum ERISA lawsuit, Unum Life Insurance Company of America (Unum), was the relevant administrator of a long-term disability (LTD) group policy plan which included Mark and other employees of his industrial company.

This Unum ERISA lawsuit was filed after the plaintiff had cooperated for years with Unum’s physicians and other employees to document his disability. Mark says he initially stopped working in April 2009 due to severe cervical spine ailments, deformities, and associated pain.

Mark underwent successful cervical spine surgery, but still had difficulty with pain control and was later diagnosed with post-laminectomy syndrome.

Despite not being able to resume his work or any equivalent, Unum denied the plaintiff his LTD benefits on May 20, 2016. Up to that point, the company had paid benefits for over six years.

Unum ERISA Lawsuit is Just One of Thousands

In 2002, the television program 60 Minutes documented Unum’s history of denying disability claims by its insured. According to Unum employees interviewed for the program, the company established a certain number of claims that needed to be denied monthly. The organization also apparently incentivized the monthly goal by rewarding claims adjusters that followed through with denials.

Today, nearly 17 million Americans are disability insurance policyholders with Unum. This number represents about 40% of the market for such policies in the U.S.

Unfortunately, many such insureds do not know about the company’s record of claim denial which has sparked up to 3,000 disability insurance lawsuits. They haven’t had to find out because they have not become disabled.

Because Unum has many subsidiaries and companies for which they handle claims, a disability insurance policy you hold could be affected in the future. If you have an LTD policy with any of the following companies and have had claim denied, you may be able to file your own Unum lawsuit:

• Unum Group
• Unum Provident
• Unum Life Insurance Company of America
• Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company
• Provident Life and Casualty Insurance Company
• MetLife (Metropolitan Life)
• New England Life and Equitable Insurance
• John Hancock Insurance Company
• John Hancock Financial
• New England Life Insurance Company
• Colonial Life Insurance Company
• Duncanson and Holt
• Genex
• Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Company
• Equitable Life Insurance Company
• Paul Revere Life Insurance Company