Baker Donelson Lawyer Loses Bid for Disability Benefits

A Baker Donelson attorney who claimed to suffer from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue lost her lawsuit seeking disability benefits from Unum Life Insurance Co. of America.

Unum’s decision to pay the attorney just 24 months of disability benefits on account of mental illness—as opposed to continued benefits based on a physical impairment—was based on substantial medical evidence, Judge Martin L.C. Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana held.

The attorney faulted Unum for requiring objective medical evidence of a condition that’s defined more by self-reported pain than objective manifestations. But Feldman disagreed, saying Unum wasn’t ...