On Wednesday, the Supreme Court is holding oral argument in MetLife v. Glenn, the case that will supposedly tell us once and for all what the effect is on ERISA litigation when the party who has to pay ERISA governed benefits is also the one who decides whether to pay those benefits. Given the Court’s history when it comes to addressing issues related to litigating ERISA cases, starting with Sereboff (at a minimum) and running up through the recent ruling in LaRue, you can predict that the Court’s ruling will add as many questions and issues to litigating such cases as it will resolve. I have discussed before here on this blog my view that the actual evidence in a particular case should be the basis for deciding how to handle any particular instance in which one party is both the administrator and the payor, and that it is specious to instead impose and enforce blanket assumptions that a meaningful conflict always exists in such situations. But I can tell from the responses to my prior posts to this effect how many people simply don’t agree with me on that, and this case offers the Court the opportunity to make the call on that one. In any event, now that I have whet your whistle for all things Glenn, you can find all things Glenn, including everything you need to know in advance of the oral argument if this is something of interest to you, right here.