A plaintiff from Arkansas has filed a disability insurance lawsuit against Unum, alleging that the insurance company has wrongfully denied her disability benefits claim.

Unum is the world leader in the disability insurance sector. The company controls 40 percent of the disability benefits market. However, the company has been dogged by claims that they have denied disability benefits claims in bad faith.

Bad faith is a legal term that means one party in a lawsuit is trying to avoid their contractual obligations. In the context of disability insurance law, bad faith usually means that an insurance provider is allegedly trying to avoid paying out on a legitimate disability insurance claim.

Though this particular Unum claim denial lawsuit is sparse on details, it alleges that Plaintiff Mary D. worked for the University of Arkansas for Medical Science in Little Rock. Her employment benefits included an Unum disability benefits plan.

Initially, Unum approved Mary’s disability benefits claim, and paid out on it for about two years. However, Unum later ruled that Mary was not fully disabled, despite the fact that her physicians ruled that she was medically unfit for even light sedentary work.

Many Unum claim denial lawsuits allege that it is an inherent conflict of interest that Unum is both the party to the contract that decides if they should pay out the disability benefits and the party that has to pay if they make the decision. These Unum lawsuits typically seek to reinstate Unum benefits, recover allegedly back-owed benefits, and recoup the cost of the Unum lawsuit.

A 2001 investigation by the television newsmagazine “60 Minutes” featured a former Unum in-house physician who alleged that the company fired him after he refused to override patients’ physicians’ determinations of disability.

Additionally, the segment alleged that Unum set a “denial quota” or required number of disability benefits denials. Additionally, the investigation exposed the now-infamous “hungry vulture award,” which was given to the employee that processed the most disability benefits denials.

The Unum Disability Insurance Lawsuit is Case No. 4:14-cv-00640-KGB, in the Circuit Court of Pulaski County in Arkansas.