Many Unum lawsuits invoke a federal law called ERISA. The law’s history explains how this law has come to play in Unum lawsuits.

ERISA’s genesis came when the Studebaker car company shut down suddenly. The collapse of the company left workers with no pension plan.

This spectacular failure led to a commission appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. The wheels of government turned slowly, until New York Sen. Jacob Javits championed what eventually became the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in 1974.

Unum lawsuits often fall under ERISA. This is because disability insurance functions enough like a pension that the same laws apply. Part of how ERISA is designed is that it is partially enforced by civil lawsuits.

ERISA allows pension holders and insured people to seek legal redress through lawsuits when they feel that they have been wronged by their pension or insurance provider.

Unum specializes in disability insurance, and has a greater share of both the U.S. and world markets than any other disability insurance provider. However, they also face numerous lawsuits alleging that Unum routinely denies legitimate disability insurance claims.

In 2002, the television news magazine 60 Minutes aired an expose on Unum’s business practices showing that company denies legitimate disability insurance claims with flimsy evidence.

A surgeon interviewed alleged that Unum denied disability benefits related to his hand tremors based on a video of him playing with a ball in his yard, covertly recorded by an Unum-hired private investigator. The surgeon maintained the person playing was his son.

Unum also allegedly had denial quotas and offered incentives for its employees to deny legitimate claims.

Unum lawsuits typically seek to reinstate or start receiving  disability benefits, and to recoup the cost of legal fees and other costs associated with Unum lawsuits.

The Department of Justice, the custodians of ERISA, have mostly left it to the courts and subsequent amendments to hammer out key points of the law. But for the most part, ERISA has protected various types of pensions and disability insurance, including the types sold by Unum.