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When Quadrino Schwartz saw an illegal practice being committed by a major insurance company, the firm commenced a class action to obtain an injunction to stop the practice. Within days, the insurance…
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Quick Settlement
When Quadrino Schwartz saw an illegal practice being committed by a
major insurance company, the firm commenced a class action to obtain an
injunction to stop the practice. Within days, the insurance company
agreed to stop its illegal practice and Quadrino Schwartz promptly
obtained a benefit for thousands of individuals across the United
States.
Why shouldn't and insurance company be entitled to apply its deductible? Well, wait a minute. What if it really isn't a deductible after all? All of the disability insurance companies…
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Question the Obvious
Why shouldn't and insurance company be entitled to apply its
deductible? Well, wait a minute. What if it really isn't a deductible
after all?
All of the disability insurance companies have
provisions in their long term disability policies that require a
disability to last a certain period of time before the claim actually
becomes "long term". After that time has passed, the payment
obligation begins, but the insurers always consider the initial time
period like a deductible, with no money to be paid for that initial
time frame. In challenging this practice in a class action, Quadrino
Schwartz has already won a preliminary ruling in which the court
refused to dismiss the case, allowing it to proceed. The case could
ultimately reap rewards for thousands of disabled Americans who have
been denied the first few months of payments under their insurance
policies.
In one of the class actions pending against UnumProvident (NYSE:UNM), a Federal Court in Massachusetts rejected a last-minute tactical maneuver by UnumProvident that sought to avoid a class certification…
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Not So Fast
In one of the class actions pending against
UnumProvident (NYSE:UNM), a Federal Court in Massachusetts rejected a
last-minute tactical maneuver by UnumProvident that sought to avoid a
class certification hearing in the State's Superior Court. Quadrino
Schwartz convinced the federal court to act on an emergency basis. In
an extensive emergency Memorandum Opinion, Judge F. Dennis Saylor
agreed with Quadrino Schwartz on the jurisdictional issues and rejected
UnumProvident's attempt to transfer the case out of the State's
Superior Court and into the federal system just 45 minutes before a
critical hearing on class certification. See Jewel v. UnumProvident,
No. CV 04-40262 . UnumProvident also tried to transfer the class action
to Tennessee, where other class actions were previously transferred in
September 2003.
Plaintiffs and the class members
in the case are represented by Quadrino Schwartz, Mansfield Tanick
& Cohen of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gilman & Pastor of Saugus,
Massachusetts, and Sandals & Associates of Philadelphia.
Quadrino Schwartz was the first law firm in the United States to bring a class action lawsuit against UnumProvident Corporation and its subsidiaries to stop and correct their illegal claims…
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First To Succeed
Quadrino Schwartz was the first law firm in the
United States to bring a class action lawsuit against UnumProvident
Corporation and its subsidiaries to stop and correct their
illegal claims practices. Quadrino Schwartz completely defeated the
insurance company's motion to dismiss the Complaint, which was fully
sustained by the U.S. District Court. To date, Quadrino Schwartz is
actively pursuing three class actions against UnumProvident and its
subsidiaries.
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".
Before starting the
first case, 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,
with the court ordering that the class action proceed against the
insurance company on all fronts.
Quadrino Schwartz obtained an important decision in Weiller v. New York Life Ins. Co, one of the three class actions spearheaded by Quadrino Schwartz. In this class action, the firm is pursuing a reassessment…
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Evidence Preservation To Protect The Class
Quadrino Schwartz obtained an important decision in
Weiller v. New York Life Ins. Co, one of the three class actions
spearheaded by Quadrino Schwartz. In this class action, the firm is
pursuing a reassessment of all claims denied or terminated by
UnumProvident under insurance policies issued by New York Life, John
Hancock Life, The Equitable, National Life of Vermont, General American
Life, and others. These other companies hired UnumProvident to
administer their entire book of disability claims and, subsequently,
make those claims decisions. UnumProvident used the same illegal claims
practices in denying and terminating these claims as they did with
their own claims as issued by Paul Revere, UnumProvident, and Unum.
Based
upon the insurance company's prior conduct, Quadrino Schwartz fought
for the preservation of additional evidence that was not saved in the
other pending class actions. The insurance compAny fought the effort,
but Quadrino Schwartz won the battle. The decision was recently
featured on the front page of the New York Law Journal (3/28/2005). The
Journal highlighted the recent decision as a “Decision of Interest” and
includes the full text version of the decision. See Quadrino Schwartz
Court Decisions for more information.
Quadrino Schwartz successfully conducted an unprecedented trial in a class action regarding email destruction. Quadrino Schwartz established at the trial that the insurance company violated an…
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Email Destruction Trial
Quadrino Schwartz successfully conducted an unprecedented trial in a
class action regarding email destruction. Quadrino Schwartz established
at the trial that the insurance company violated an evidence
preservation order which had been sought and obtained by Quadrino
Schwartz. The preservation order was obtained to prevent emails and
other materials from routine or other destruction so that they would be
available during the discovery process. The trial was part of
Quadrino Schwartz' longstanding fight against the nation's largest
disability insurer. The firm has obtained significant results and
gained protections for literally hundreds of thousands of people
throughout the United States.
From the outset of
the class action, 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 Corporation 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 trial, and obtained a critical court decision regarding
the facts found in our investigation.
The
Court's decision after the trial 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.
When an insurance company sought to use a hidden paragraph of fine print to reduce the amount of payments to be made under its policy, Quadrino Schwartz fought back. The people victimized by…
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Don’t Surprise Me
When an insurance company sought to use a hidden paragraph of fine
print to reduce the amount of payments to be made under its policy,
Quadrino Schwartz fought back. The people victimized by this practice
were completely surprised by the hidden paragraph, not having been told
about it by the insurance company or their insurance broker. No law
firm in the United States had ever even tried to invalidate the little
known paragraph in the insurance policy, but Quadrino Schwartz
convinced the court that the paragraph was illegally hidden in the
wrong spot in the insurance policy. Thus, the insurance company was
banned from using the paragraph to reduce the payments made under the
policy. The decision was the first of its kind in the country, and
Quadrino Schwartz intends to obtain relief on behalf of the victims of
other insurance companies who have used the same "surprise" tactic.
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