UnumProvident Disability Lawsuits: California Claims Bad Faith

If you are one of the estimated 26,000 claimants whose benefits were denied by UnumProvident Corporation or one of its subsidiary companies (Unum Life, Provident Life & Accident, Colonial Life, or Paul Revere) during the time period between January 1, 1997 and September 30, 2005, you may have your claim reassessed, and if desired, have the reassessment reviewed by an independent expert if you do not receive all the benefits you asked for. If you are not eligible for reassessment, perhaps because your claim did not fall within the time period above, you may still be able to recover if you feel you’re claim was unfairly denied.

Chances are, if your claim qualifies for reassessment, you have already received a Request to Participate form that looks like this. By this time, you have already either opted in or out of reassessment. If you opted out of reassessment (that is, you did not fill out and return the Request to Participate form by the deadline), your claim will not be reviewed by UnumProvident, but you may still be able to sue independently if you think your claim was unfairly denied. You may wish to consult with an attorney as soon as possible to find out if you can still file suit within the applicable statute of limitations period.

If you opted in for reassessment, depending on how your reassessment goes, you may wish to consult with an attorney well-versed in disability law to help you sort through your options. If your claim is approved, you will get the recovery you asked for, but will have waived your right to sue for what are called special or extracontractual damages. If your claim is denied in part or in whole after reassessment, you are entitled to an independent review. The review process and rules are outlined in the Independent Review Process document created by the Insurance Commissioner.

Want to know more?

• If you are a disability insurance policyholder with a carrier other than Unum Life, Provident Life & Accident, or Paul Revere, and you would like to find out how the UnumProvident California settlement might affect your rights, see More Security for California Disability Policyholders Thanks to UnumProvident.
• If you would like to find out how disability claims are handled with your insurer, do the following: If you are employed, contact your employer’s HR person. They can either answer your questions, or direct you to the insurance carrier for answers. If you are self-employed, contact your carrier. If you are a federal or state employee, read State Disability Insurance Overview.
• If you have disability insurance through a carrier other than UP, recently filed a claim and you are dissatisfied with how your claim was handled, you can contact the CA Department of Insurance to file a complaint/investigation. After you have contacted the DOI, you may want to consider seeking legal representation to dispute the denial of your claim.