Unum Group is the largest disability insurance company in the country. Disability insurance exists to help people if they get hurt or become sick and are unable to work for several months. However, its been alleged that Unum has been unjustly denying and/or terminating thousands of valid disability claims to increase their profit margin. Plaintiff Veronica Roederer, employee of Alere Health Improvement Company, is just one of the latest to take legal action against the insurance giant.

According to Disabilityinsurance.org, “one out of every four persons in the U.S. workforce will suffer a disabling injury before retirement.” Roederer is one of those four. As a personal health consultant of Alere, Roederer was eligible to participate in their Unum Group Disability plan when she became disabled in February 2013. On March 5, 2013, Unum approved Roederer’s claim for disability benefits; on April 19 of that year, they cancelled it. In response, Roederer filed an Unum lawsuit.

According to the Unum lawsuit, Unum Group said their discontinuation of Roederer‘s disability insurance policy was valid because, “[T]he information in your client’s claim file does not support restrictions and limitations that would prevent her from performing the duties of her own occupation past April 19, 2013. The decision to deny benefits on her claim is appropriate.”

However, according to Roederer’s disability insurance lawsuit, denying her claim was “arbitrary and capricious” in light of her physical diagnosis and limitations. Her physician’s report said she was unable to perform the duties and tasks required of her position, and that Unum was ignoring her doctor’s opinion. As such, Roeder says she is entitled to the short-term and long-term disability insurance benefits of her plan.

Roeder is seeking a lump sum award based on the monthly payments due from the original award to judgment, and continuation of payment going forward until she “no longer satisfies the definition of disability under the plan.” She is also seeking attorney fees and costs for the Unum lawsuit.

The Unum Disability Insurance Lawsuit is Veronica Roederer v. Unum Life Insurance Company, et al., Case No. 2:14-cv-01536-MHW-TPK, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

What is Disability Insurance?

Typically, short-term disability provides 40 to 70 percent of a pre-disability base salary. It’s meant to protect employees if they become temporarily disabled, and are not able to work for a short period of time due to sickness or injury not related to their job. Companies sign up for group plans to cover their employees and themselves for the related losses.

A Fortune 500 company based in Tennessee, Unum Group was formerly known as UnumProvident. Today Unum is the top disability insurer in the United States and the United Kingdom, with close to 17 million American subscribers and annual revenues of over $10 billion.

Plaintiffs around the country allege that over the past two decades Unum and its subsidiaries, including Provident Life, Colonial Life and Accident Insurance, and The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company have been practicing bad faith insurance, systematically denying thousands of policy holders their disability insurance. All have been subject to disability insurance lawsuits for not paying valid disability claims.

Large insurance companies like Unum have a way of making their word seem final, but individuals need to remember that they still have rights. Filing a bad faith insurance lawsuit or joining a Unum class action lawsuit may aid in getting the benefits you deserve and to receive back pay for past claim denials.