Connecticut resident Kelly Feher has filed a bad faith insurance lawsuit against insurance giant Unum Provident, alleging that Unum acted in bad faith by wrongfully denying her disability insurance claim.

According to her Unum lawsuit, Feher developed Lyme Disease while vacationing in Pennsylvania. She was formally diagnosed on July 8, 2010. With a doctor’s note, she worked diminished hours until November 2010, when she could not work due to fatigue and pain from Lyme Disease. Feher applied for short-term disability benefits through her Unum insurance policy.

Unum denied Feher’s insurance claim in March of 2011, stating that her claim lacked evidence explaining how Lyme disease prevented her from working. The denial letter also stated that Feher’s claim showed no evidence of joint swelling, which can be side effect of Lyme Disease, and that she never saw a neurologist to treat her symptoms.

However, Feher states in the Unum lawsuit that she suffers from Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome, a recognized condition where the symptoms of Lyme Disease linger after treatment. She also explains that she did not seek a neurologist’s care because her pain and fatigue were due to Lyme Disease rather than a true neurological issue.

Feher’s lawsuit alleges that Unum denied her legitimate insurance claim in order to avoid paying out on her insurance policy. This is termed “bad faith.”

Bad faith is a legal term that means one party in a contract is trying to avoid living up to their end of a contract. In this context, it means that Unum is allegedly trying to avoid fulfilling the terms of its insurance policy with Feher.

Unum has previously faced other litigation over alleged bad faith insurance denials. Some of this litigation has taken the form of class action lawsuits. Class action lawsuits are a type of group lawsuit wherein a group of people allege that they have suffered similar harm at the hands of the same defendant. Group lawsuits are designed to save resources. And defendants only have to face a single lawsuit, and the court system only has to try a single case instead of dozens, or even hundreds of individual lawsuits.

The Unum lawsuit is Kelly Feher v. Unum, Case No. 14CV334RNC, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.