Unum, also called Unum Provident, is one of the largest insurance companies in the United States and the world. It controls more than 40 percent of the disability insurance market, a larger proportion than any other company. However, they have been accused of acting in “bad faith” by denying insurance claims by a number of Unum class action lawsuit and bad faith insurance lawsuit plaintiffs.

Unum came about as the result of several other counties through mergers and rebranding. Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company was the oldest forerunner of the company. The company was formed in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1887. It was founded as a company to insure the uninsurable. Specifically, they allowed miners and sawmill workers to obtain disability insurance. Prior to this, insurance companies treated people in these occupations as “uninsurable” due to the high-risk nature of their work. This put Unum at the cutting edge of the insurance industry.

However, in more recent years, Unum has come under scrutiny for some of its practices. Since 2002, regulatory, legal and media scrutiny have all focused on Unum. This year, the television newsmagazine “60 Minutes” did an exposé on various practices at Unum. These allegedly included a “hungry vulture award,” which was awarded to the employee that denied the most insurance claims. Additionally, “60 Minutes” featured a physician formerly employed by Unum. The physician claims that Unum tried to pressure him and other doctors into “overruling” policyholders’ insurance claims.

It has been alleged in Unum class action lawsuit and Unum bad faith lawsuits that the company has acted in bad faith. In the context of insurance law, this means that a party to a contract is trying to get out of their obligations through dishonest or illegal means. In the case of insurance law, the contract in question is the insurance policy.

Many of the lawsuits against Unum have taken the form of individual lawsuits, but the company has also faced class action lawsuits. Class action lawsuits are a type of group lawsuit where a number of plaintiffs allege that they have suffered similar harm at the hands of the same defendant. Group lawsuits like class action lawsuits are designed to streamline the legal system.