A bad faith insurance lawsuit was filed by a former geriatric center employee after being denied long-term disability insurance through Unum.

Plaintiff Elease E. of Pennsylvania filed a bad faith insurance denial lawsuit against Unum Life Insurance Company of America after the company denied her claims even though they allegedly should have been covered under the insurance plan she was provided through her employer Isabella Geriatric Center.

The disability insurance lawsuit alleges that Elease became disabled and was forced to stop working. Elease then filed a claim for long term disability and her claim was denied by Unum. The plaintiff alleges that she then appealed the denial and fully exhausted all other remedies but Unum has refused to provide disability benefits.

Elease claims that Unum’s decision to deny her long-term disability benefits was not based upon evidence or reasonable decision making. Rather, the Unum lawsuit states that the decision to deny her claim was reached by Unum “ignoring relevant evidence pertaining to plaintiff’s claim and, instead, relying upon biased information and flawed expert opinions. Accordingly, defendant operated under a conflict of interest which improperly and significantly influenced its claim decision.”

Bad Faith Insurance Practices

More than 17 million Americans deduct a portion of their paycheck to pay Unum for disability insurance benefits. However, Unum has been accused in multiple lawsuits of engaging in what is referred as “bad faith” practices. 

Some of the reported bad faith practices that Unum policyholders have reported include:

• Claims representatives who take favorable opinions of nurses over physicians when it comes to disability reports
• Omitting records to record reviewers when it would show a claimant as disabled
• Refusing to acknowledge a disability
• Misreading medical records in order to deny claims
• Investigations that are performed by biased and sometimes unqualified “experts”
• Changing policies once claims are filed (and without the authorization or knowledge of policy holders)

Unum Claim Denial Lawsuit

Unum handles nearly 40 percent of all disability insurance policies in the U.S. However, the company has faced thousands of lawsuits filed by plaintiffs like Elease who are asking the court to step in in order for her to receive disability benefits.

In general, these lawsuits seek the money plaintiffs are owed by the alleged bad faith insurance denial by Unum. Many Unum settlements have awarded plaintiffs hundreds of thousands of dollars and, in some cases, even millions. If you were denied Unum disability benefits, contact an Unum attorney to find out if you have legal claim.

The Unum claim denial lawsuit is Case No. 6:15-cv-02912-TMC, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Greenville Division.