CALIFORNIA — Northern District Judge James Larson upheld a $7.67 million jury verdict awarded to a chiropractor whose long-term disability benefits were cut off by UnumProvident Corp., the nation’s largest disability insurer. The ruling by Judge Larson is the first to find that the company engages in unfair business practices. The verdict includes $5 million in punitive damages.

“Despite conclusive evidence that plaintiff was unable to work as a chiropractor and that her other attempts to work had failed, after one-and-a-half years of paying benefits, defendants subjected her to a biased medical examination, then recharacterized her occupation as a business owner, rather than a chiropractor, and claimed she was not totally disabled because she could perform bookkeeping or teach a class or see two patients per hour,” Larson wrote.

(via The Recorder)