Court Orders Production of Computerized Activity Log Revealed by Former Employee

Treace v. UNUM Life Ins. Co., 2004 WL 3142215 (W.D.Tenn. Aug. 10, 2004)

Insured sued UNUM Life Insurance Company for breach of contract, bad faith, and related torts based upon Unum’s denial of her disability claim. In response to an interrogatory seeking the identities of individuals who had contact with plaintiff about the claim, Unum represented that any record of telephone conversations with a claimant were kept in the claim file (which had already been produced) and it would be the same burden on both parties to search through those records to compile a “telephone log.”

In support of her motion to compel, the plaintiff submitted an affidavit from a former employee of Unum (Ms. Nee) who stated that Unum maintains a “computerized database that tracks every activity taken on a claim.” Nee elaborated: “Each and every phone call and activity is, pursuant to the policy of Unum’s Customer Care Claims Organization, to be recorded in this log. In other words, each time the plaintiff called Unum’s Call Center to seek assistance, it should have been recorded in the computerized database.” Nee further stated that she reviewed the documents produced by Unum and the computerized activity log was missing.

Based the information provided in the former employee’s affidavit, the court granted the motion to compel as to this issue, and ordered Unum to produce the computerized activity log pertaining to the plaintiff’s claim or to supplement its response to state under oath that no computerized activity log exists.

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