Details About the UnumProvident Class Action Filed By Quadrino & Schwartz

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. That first class action lawsuit was filed by Quadrino Schwartz in New York in November of 2002, but after its transfer to Tennessee it has now finallly been approved in September 2007 as a “certified” class action.  Quadrino Schwartz kept up the fight for 5 years against UnumProvident, now called Unum, and pressed the court to decide the class certification issue, for the potential benefit of thousands of disabled Americans.

The case  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 actions 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 case, Quadrino Schwartz 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, we commenced and pursued the largest ERISA disability class action lawsuit ever attempted.

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. For example:

• 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.
• When UnumProvident violated court orders to preserve documents and destroyed some of their internal company emails, Quadrino & Schwartz vigorously fought the company, obtaining a critical court decision in our favor.
• 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 critical 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.
• We have now surpassed the critical step of “class certification”.  This means that any favorable result in the case may apply to the large group of thousands of disabled victims defined by the Court. 

There will likely 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.

If you would like a free consultation to find out if we can assist you as a potential member of the UnumProvident class action being prosecuted by Quadrino & Schwartz, fill out our inquiry form (left side of this page)  or call us at 1-800-745-1755.