A Kansas woman recently filed a lawsuit against Unum Life Insurance Company of America, alleging her anxiety disability claim was wrongly denied.

The plaintiff, Kimberly S., says she purchased a long-term disability insurance policy from Unum while she was still a resident of Missouri. Unfortunately, Kimberly—an obstetrician-gynecologist—became disabled because of stress-induced anxiety caused by her work as an obstetrician, according to her Unum lawsuit.

Her symptoms, the complaint alleges, include anxiety, exhaustion, mood swings, depression, and panic attacks. Because of these significant problems, Kimberly alleges she was forced to stop her work as an obstetrician or else pose a risk to her patients.

While Kimberly continues her work as a gynecologist, she says she was forced to stop performing obstetrics back in June 2016, which led to her filing her anxiety disability claim with Unum in July 2016. However, Kimberly’s anxiety disability claim was denied by Unum in a letter dated Dec. 12, 2016.

Believing this denial to be in error, and that her anxiety disability claim was valid, Kimberly appealed this denial in October 2017 with the help of counsel, along with more evidence supporting her claim. But Unum denied her appeal once again in December 2017.

Left with no other administrative options, Kimberly says she turned to litigation, and filed a lawsuit over her denied anxiety disability claim on May 24, 2018 on counts of breach of contract and vexatious refusal to pay.

Kimberly is not the first person to have been denied Unum long-term disability benefits she believes she was properly entitled to. Some who have become disabled seek reinstatement of their disability benefits by pursuing all the administrative means available to them, including filing appeals to reverse Unum’s decision.

However, even when a person attempts to appeal in this manner, Unum may still deny their appeal. If the appeal approach proves unsuccessful, some turn to litigation to seek the company’s claim denial reversal going forward.

This Unum disability insurance lawsuit and others like it allege that Unum has unfairly denied the disability insurance claims of plaintiffs who are qualified to receive such benefits. Some lawsuits go further, alleging that the company purposely denied the claims of hundreds of thousands of workers with legitimate disabilities for no reason other to increase company profit.

Filing an Unum Lawsuit

Policyholders who have exhausted all recourse through applications and appeals for disability benefits may turn to filing an Unum disability insurance lawsuit over claim denials, hoping to reverse Unum’s decision. A growing number of plaintiffs like Kimberly are filing disability benefits lawsuits against Unum, claiming that the insurance giant unfairly denied their Unum long-term disability claim to benefits that they qualify for under the terms of their insurance policies.

If you have been unfairly denied long-term disability benefits by Unum, you may be able to file an Unum long-term disability claim lawsuit.

The Anxiety Disability Claim is Case No. 4:18-cv-00403-JTM, in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri at Kansas City.

Do YOU have a legal claim? Fill out the form on this page now for a free, immediate, and confidential case evaluation. The bad faith insurance attorneys who work with Top Class Actions will contact you if you qualify to let you know if an individual lawsuit or Unum class action lawsuit is best for you. [In general, Unum bad faith lawsuits are filed individually by each plaintiff and are not class actions.] Hurry — statutes of limitations may apply.

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