Unum Legal News Articles & Interviews

Santa Ana, CA On November 20, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California handed Pamela Fleming a resounding victory in her Unum disability insurance lawsuit. Unum had been paying her LTD benefits since 2005, after a serious and well-documented neck injury sustained in a car accident. A change in her treating physician and a brief surveillance video led the insurer to re-evaluate her claim and declare that she had recovered. The insurer terminated her benefits. Judge Cormac J. Carney was not impressed and reinstated her benefits due under the policy.

Chicago, IL: Yet another lawsuit was filed in November against First Unum for allegedly denying long-term disability benefits. In the same month, Unum announced to the media that it had donated $300,000 to a high-school girls’ leadership program.

New Orleans, LA: The giant insurance company Unum—also known as First Unum -- typically denies accidental death benefits (as do most other life insurance companies) by excluding in their policy coverage for deaths related to prescription overdose or for medical or surgical treatment of a sickness or disease. But Unum’s denial didn’t sway Judge Martin Feldman this past August.

Chattanooga, TN On September 25, 2018, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted UNUM Life Insurance’s motion for summary judgment, thus ending Richard Ravenscraft’s UNUM disability lawsuit on the grounds that he had not exhausted administrative remedies. These are the rocks on which many long term disability lawsuits have been dashed.

San Diego, CA: A dental surgeon has filed a bad faith lawsuit against Unum, or First Unum after the giant insurer denied his long term disability benefits claiming his injury is a sickness. The Unum lawsuit claims that Unum denied the dentist his rightful benefits to protect their own interests.

Santa Clara, CA: As a disability claims consultant and former Unum employee, Linda Nee knows just about every trick in the insurance company’s books to dispute and deny disability benefits to claimants. She says that Unum, or First Unum is “nickel and diming” its policy holders by alleging overpayments associated with SSDI and other monthly earnings offsets, including Retirement Income.

New Orleans, LA Unum Group has come under scrutiny yet again for alleged deceptive practices. This time the insurance giant has lost a battle in the Wittmann v. Unum Life Insurance Co. litigation. Plaintiff attorney Anne Wittmann, who alleges that she was wrongfully denied disability benefits, subpoenaed financial records from James H. Bress, M.D., who Unum hired to review her claim. Unum Group fought back, by moving to quash the subpoena. On July 11, 2018, a Federal District Judge in Louisiana Ordered that the records be turned over so Plaintiffs can ascertain whether his opinion was swayed by a financial dependence on the insurance carrier.

Greeneville, TN: On May 14, 2018, Janet Mitchell, a former employee of the mega law firm Jones Day, filed a lawsuit against both Unum and Jones Day in a Tennessee Federal Court. Mitchell states that she suffers from a constellation of health conditions that prevent her from being able to work, including coronary artery disease, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, hypertension, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She alleges that Unum denied her claim for long-term disability benefits even though several of her treating physicians provided Unum with medical reports supporting her claim. Yet Unum denied her claim without ever having one of its own physicians examine her. The lawsuit says the denial was issued in bad faith, in order for Unum Provident to meet its monthly target.

Ellicott City, MD: A former Maryland project manager for a real estate company has accused the Unum Group of suspending her monthly disability payments after 26 years of payments when she was elected to serve part-time on the Howard County Board of Education. Five years after notifying Unum life insurance that she had been elected to the Board of Education position, her benefits were terminated and she does not know why.

Gibsonia, PA: Tucked in amongst a seemingly never-ending barrage of positivity stemming from the Unum camp with regard to investment, expansion and financial performance are the ever-lurking Unum insurance lawsuits alleging bad faith insurance and similar frustrations after an insurer that happily accepts monthly premiums suddenly does an about-face and pulls that plug when it comes time to pay up.