Doe v. First UNUM Life Insurance Company

**What Happened** An employee sued First UNUM Life Insurance Company for discrimination. The case involved disputes over how an administrative law judge (ALJ) handled the employee's disability claim, specifically how the judge evaluated medical evidence from the employee's treating doctors and determined what work activities the employee could still perform. **What the Court Decided** The court sided with the employee and sent the case back to a lower court for another review. The court rejected the Commissioner's request to dismiss the case entirely. The judge found that the administrative law judge made mistakes when reviewing the medical opinions from the employee's treating physicians and when deciding what job tasks the employee was still capable of performing given their medical condition. **Why This Matters for Workers** This ruling reinforces that administrative judges must properly consider medical evidence from workers' own doctors when evaluating disability claims. When insurance companies or government agencies don't give adequate weight to treating physician opinions, workers can successfully challenge those decisions in court. This protects workers' rights to fair evaluation of their disability claims and ensures their medical evidence receives proper consideration in the decision-making process.