A new Unum lawsuit has been filed against the insurance giant, alleging that the company denied an insurance claim in bad faith.

Cindy Arellano of Colorado filed the bad faith lawsuit against Unum over a denied disability insurance claim. Her Unum lawsuit resembles other similar lawsuits from around the country.

According to Arellano’s Unum lawsuit, she was employed as a registered nurse for a company called Alere Incorporated. Her employer provided disability insurance, underwritten by Unum. According to the denied insurance claim lawsuit, Arellano developed several disabling medical conditions in October 2010, including migraines, fibromyalgia, Sjögren’s syndrome, and several other medical conditions.

Fibromyalgia is a neurological condition which can cause serious pain and other symptoms throughout the body. Sjörgen’s syndrome is an autoimmune disease where the body’s white blood cells go haywire and attack various glands in the eyes and mouth, causing pain, dry eyes/mouth, and inflammation.

Arellano’s Unum insurance policy stated that it would pay out 60 percent of Arellano’s pre-disability earnings per month. Initially, Unum approved her for long-term disability (LTD) benefits starting in October of 2010. However, Unum terminated the LTD benefits in April 2013. Arellano appealed, but Unum upheld its denial through their internal appeals process. The denied insurance claim lawsuit alleges that Unum denied the benefits wrongfully, that Arellano is disabled according to the definition in the insurance policy, and entitled to further disability insurance benefits, an act called “bad faith,” in legal terminology.

Under a federal law called the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), a policy holder may file a bad faith insurance lawsuit against a disability insurance company, if he or she believes insurance benefits were wrongfully denied. ERISA is a federal law designed to protect people’s retirement pensions and disability insurance. Under ERISA, a person may seek civil redress against an act of alleged bad faith. However, ERISA does require that a person exhaust any internal appeals process before filing such a lawsuit. Arellano’s Unum lawsuit holds that she has exhausted Unum’s internal appeals process.

Unum has faced similar disability insurance lawsuits in the past over alleged instances of bad faith. Some of this litigation has alleged that Unum systemically denies legitimate insurance claims in bad faith to protect their bottom line. In 2002, the television newsmagazine 60 Minutes ran an exposé on the insurance provider, which found that Unum offered the Unum employee who denied the most insurance claims the “hungry vulture award.” Additionally, the segment interviewed a former Unum physician who alleged that Unum fired him after refusing to go against policyholders’ physicians’ disability determinations.

The Unum lawsuit is Cindy Arellano v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America, Civil Action No. 1:14-cv-01111-KMT, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.