Lawsuits against Unum and its subsidiaries for investigating claims in bad faith and terminating legitimate benefits claims have been piling up for a few years now, but it has some people wondering if it has really changed anything about how the company operates.
If you look at the company’s lawsuit history, you can get an idea of just how bad its crimes have been. For example, in 2008, the U.S. Second District court of Appeals spoke about Unum’s pattern of denying insurance claims and accused the company of acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner. The court couldn’t find that the company made any changes — even with the lawsuits against them piling up. The court’s actual words were harsh and to the point when it said:
“First Unum is no stranger to the courts, where its conduct has drawn biting criticism from judges. A district court in Massachusetts wrote that ‘an examination of cases involving First Unum . . . reveals a disturbing pattern of erroneous and arbitrary benefits denials, bad faith contract misinterpretations, and other unscrupulous tactics.’ That court listed more than thirty cases in which First Unum’s denials were found to be unlawful, including one decision in which First Unum’s behavior was ‘culpably abusive.’”
Some of the things Unum was accused of include making unfair requirements from claimants, giving claimants the runaround with paperwork filing requirements and saying documents got lost or never showed up even when information was faxed to them. The list of things Unum has done as a way to deny claims and prolong the application process is seemingly endless.
The continuing lawsuits against Unum would suggest that even with the Regulatory Settlement Agreement (RSA) made with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) acknowledging the company was in the wrong, it still hasn’t changed its practices completely yet, even if it is following the RSA requirements. It seems that clever legal maneuvering just helps the company hide behind the RSA instead.
If you have been denied disability insurance benefits or if you have had your benefits terminated, contact Greg Jones Today for a free consultation. I will fight hard to make sure that your insurance claim gets the attention it deserves.