A new ERISA disability claim lawsuit was filed in federal court on Aug. 17, 2018. The lawsuit was registered in U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Greenville Division.

Plaintiff Connie H. is a citizen and resident of the state of Missouri. Connie alleges she was effectively denied short- and long-term disability benefits from the defendant Unum Life Insurance Company of America.

Connie, a former employee of Johnson Controls Inc., says she was given access to short- and long-term disability insurance coverage through her employment benefits package. The defendant, Unum Life Insurance Co., is the contracted insurer of these plans and is responsible for determining the validity of a particular claim and deciding whether it is worthy of benefits.

Connie says she asserted her ERISA disability claim legally after working through all the administrative appeal steps that exist secondary to a denial of benefits. Although her Unum lawsuit does not detail the nature of her condition that caused her to cease working, she felt that she was forced to do so by its severity.

According to the ERISA disability claim lawsuit Connie filed, Unum’s definition of disability is identical whether it is considered short or long-term. Because of this similarity in definition, she argues that continued attempts to fight denials of long term benefits when short term benefits have been withheld are futile.

It is also noted in the ERISA disability claim that application for both was made at roughly the same time. The narrative indicates that failure to obtain the approval of short term benefits is tantamount to failing to obtain the approval of long term benefits. This allegedly is because Unum relies upon the short term period to draw a baseline of the condition and that completion of it is a prerequisite.

Connie then claims that continuing to exhaustively pursue administrative remedies on long-term coverage is a waste of time. She hopes that the court will decide with a view of all the records that she is due both short and long-term disability benefits under ERISA.

She is asking for all retroactive benefits up through the point of judgment and beyond. She additionally hopes for the coverage of all attorney and legal fees that have been necessary to being her ERISA disability claim before the court.

What is ERISA?

ERISA is the Employee Retirement Income Act of 1974. It is a federal law that was designed and implemented in order to protect individuals enrolled in the pension and health and welfare (disability) plans of private industry employers. ERISA established a set of standards by which administrators of insurance plans need to operate.

Among those standards are to provide plan information to enrollees and establish a complete grievance and appeal process along with information as to how to utilize it if necessary. ERISA also gives enrollees in said plans the right to sue for denied benefits or what are perceived to be breaches of administrative duty vis a vis the insured.

The Unum Lawsuit is Case No. 6:18-cv-02285-TMC in U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Greenville Division

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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