From Doe v. Truist Financial Corp., decided Tuesday by Judge Victoria Marie Calvert (N.D. Ga.):
Plaintiff was an employee of Defendant Truist Financial Corp. which provided short term disability benefits to its employees through the Truist Financial Corporation Employee Benefit Plan. Plaintiff ceased working on April 22, 2021 due to severe anxiety which manifested in psychological and emotional distress and panic attacks. Plaintiff was denied short term disability benefits by the Plan's administrator, Defendant Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Company, a determination which she challenges here.
Plaintiff seeks to proceed anonymously because she is concerned that this suit, regarding whether she "is totally disabled from her position as a Wealth Advisor," "could mar her vocational and social future" in the event that she overcomes her "severe mental problems." …
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 10(a) requires that a complaint "include the names of all parties." The Eleventh Circuit has found that this requirement "serves more than administrative convenience …. It protects the public's legitimate interest in knowing all of the facts involved, including the identities of the parties." "This creates a strong presumption in favor of parties proceeding in their own names," and courts permit plaintiffs to proceed under an anonymous or fictitious name only in "exceptional cases." …
[T]he Court recognizes "[c]ourts have permitted plaintiffs to proceed anonymously in cases involving mental illness." However, alleging the existence of a mental illness alone is not sufficient to meet the relevant standard; "[t]he ultimate test for permitting a plaintiff to proceed anonymously is whether the plaintiff has a substantial privacy right which outweighs the "customary and constitutionally-embedded presumption of openness in judicial proceedings."
