Unum Life Insurance Company is facing a recent disability insurance lawsuit alleging that it wrongfully denied long term disability benefits.

Long term disability income protection insurance provides financial benefits to employees when they are unable to work due to a permanent disability regardless of whether or not that illness or injury is work-related.

Plaintiff Jennifer Goodie of Los Angeles filed an unpaid disability benefits lawsuit against Unum alleging that the company wrongfully denied the long term disability benefits under her employer’s disability insurance plan.

According to the Unum lawsuit, Goodie, a former Jacob’s Engineering employee, was diagnosed with an undisclosed permanent disability which prevented her from working.

Goodie’s claim for long term disability benefits was initially granted by Unum and paid for a period of time. However, in October 2013, Unum denied Goodie’s claim even though she reportedly provided Unum with evidence of her permanent disability.

The Unum long term disability lawsuit further accuses the defendants of failing to provide Goodie with a reasonable explanation for the denied long term disability benefits.

Common Unum Benefits Denial Practices

Unum (formerly known as Unum Provident and First Unum) has written disability insurance policies for approximately 17 million Americans, making it the largest disability insurance provider in the United States.

It has denied countless insurance claims to thousands of policyholders in the past two decades. Some examples of Unum’s alleged denial tactics include:

• Improperly investigating the claim and obtaining opinions from unqualified experts
• Demanding repeated requests for independent medical examinations or denying a claim without any medical examination or reasonable explanation
• Partially paying a claim for total disability and then denying the same claim at a subsequent date

Unum Insurance Long Term Disability Lawsuits

Unum and its subsidiaries, including Provident Life, The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company and Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company, have been subject to numerous claim denial lawsuits for illegally refusing to pay valid disability claims.

Unum policyholders have filed disability insurance lawsuits against the insurance company for bad faith insurance practices and denying their Unum long term disability benefits insurance without reason or explanation.

Goodie is seeking declaratory relief, retroactive disability benefits, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest as allowed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and attorney’s fees and cost.

The Unum Long Term Disability Benefits Insurance Lawsuit is Jennifer Goodie v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America, Case No. 2:14-cv-08233-RGK-AGR, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.