UNUMProvident Class Action Lawsuits

UnumProvident, Unum, Paul Revere & First Unum

In light of the recent certification of a class in the class action lawsuit commenced by Quadrino Schwartz, people may have questions concerning their disability claims. We are offering free telephone consultations to those who want to find out if they may be affected by the class action case. To find out more, please fill out our inquiry form.

* * * *

Quadrino Schwartz was the first long-term disability insurance law firm in the United States to bring a class action lawsuit against UNUMProvident, UNUM, Paul Revere, First UNUM, Provident, and other UNUMProvident subsidiaries to stop and correct their illegal disability claims practices. Quadrino Schwartz is actively prosecuting the class action against UnumProvident and its subsidiares.

The class action lawsuit seeks recovery for people who obtained their disability coverage through their employers. Many of those group insurance policies are governed by a federal law called "ERISA". We are part of a team of insurance attorneys dedicated to make the class action a success to bring relief to thousands of people across the country who have had their long-term disability claims denied or terminated.

Before starting the first case of its kind in the United States, we conducted many years of investigation and research into the practices of UnumProvident and its subsidiaries. Armed with our extensive knowledge of ERISA law and our many years of experience in conducting litigation on a large-scale basis, Quadrino Schwartz commenced and pursued the largest ERISA disability class action lawsuit ever attempted.

Our legal Complaint, filed in the federal court in New York, was vigorously attacked by UNUMProvident's lawyers, who attempted to get the case dismissed. We were successful in defeating UNUMProvident on each and every legal issue raised by them. See the story and related links for further information regarding the Court Decision.

Since November of 2002 we haven taken the fight to UnumProvident and their attorneys, obtaining significant results and gaining protections for literally hundreds of thousands of people throughout the United States.

From the outset, we were very concerned about documents and emails being destroyed before we could review them, so we vigorously pursued and obtained from the court a special court order requiring UnumProvident to save everything that could be possibly relevant to the case. The order required UnumProvident to preserve thousands of boxes of documents and various emails and other computer based information. When it was revealed that many thousands of the company's emails had been deleted, in violation of the court order, Quadrino & Schwartz vigorously conducted an investigation, engaged in a full-blown court hearing, and obtained a critical court decision regarding the facts found in our investigation.

The Court's decision details all of the facts elicited in the Quadrino Schwartz investigation, which was comprised of depositions of various witnesses, a review of UnumProvident's corporate email communications, as well an in-court testimony elicited by Quadrino Schwartz on behalf of the many thousands of potential class members. There will be further activities in the litigation to determine the full extent of the harm caused to the potential class members due to UnumProvident's destruction of its internal company emails.

Quadrino & Schwartz believes that many of these emails contain the critical evidence needed to fully reveal the unlawful claims practices of the company. All of the email tapes that were not destroyed are preserved for our future review so that we can assess what steps the court may need to take concerning this destruction of evidence.

Based upon the email destruction and UnumProvident's failure to fully secure other critical documents, we pressed UnumProvident to gather and secure other documents, and they resisted. When we brought this issue to the court, UnumProvident was ordered to promptly seize criticial internal company files from the desks and offices of UnumProvident vice presidents and other managers, so that they could be secured for our review. These materials are now being held in a secure off-site warehouse.

Other ERISA class actions that were also brought against UnumProvident, after Quadrino Schwartz commenced its case, were consolidated and transferred to a federal court in Tennessee. The cases are currently ongoing and Quadrino Schwartz is a key part of the team of attorneys working toward success on behalf of those who have had their claims denied, as well as those who are currently undergoing or will be undergoing the claims process with UnumProvident and any one of its subsidiaries. The class action that seeks recovery for those who purchased their own disability policy (not group insurance from the employer) is based in Massachusetts.

For general court information with regard to the status of the Tennessee ERISA class actions, you can visit http://www.tned.uscourts.gov/mdl.php.