It literally pays to know what you’re up against when applying for a long-term or short-term disability insurance benefits with Unum. Many Unum policy holders come to us wishing they had known our lawyers tips to get their disability benefits approved before they applied, and got denied their disability income benefits. Here is what you need to know to get approved for Unum short term or long term disability insurance benefits.

When the world’s largest disability insurance company gets a claim from someone whose professional license has been suspended, what happens? Can the policyholder collect disability insurance benefits? The short answer is: That depends. Disability insurance attorney Greg Dell and fellow lawyer Cesar Gavidia explain how a similar situation played out in a 2018 case against Paul Revere, which is now Unum Disability Insurance Company.

In Linda M. Hines v. Unum Life Insurance Company, Plaintiff was covered under a disability benefit policy through her employer. A provision of that policy was that it did not pay benefits for any disabling condition for which the employee had received medical treatment during the three-month period before the employee became covered under the plan.

Overview of the Facts and Procedures

In Jacob v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America, Plaintiff Lauren Jacob submitted a claim for disability benefits to Unum stating she became disabled at work on January 8, 2014. Unum denied her request for disability benefits. After exhausting her administrative remedies, Jacob filed an ERISA lawsuit in federal court.
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The case of Murphy v. First Unum Life Insurance Company was brought following the administrative appeal which upheld Unum’s termination of plaintiff’s long term disability benefits under the definition of disability that required her to be disabled from “any occupation for which she is reasonably qualified by way of training, education and experience.” The case does not discuss the medical problems of the plaintiff, Marta Murphy, a Lead Medical Assistant at Huntington Hospital, the merits of her claim or reasons why it was denied.
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