I have written before that one of the things that makes insurance coverage law interesting is the fact that almost every trend in liability or litigation eventually shows back up in insurance disputes, in a sort of fun house mirror sort of way. Whether it is corporate exposure for asbestos liabilities, or the sudden invention
Me and My Blog
Continuing last Friday’s line of digression away from the actual subjects of this blog, I thought I would pass along that I am featured in an article in the current edition of the Boston Business Journal, on the subject of legal blogs. Here’s a link to the article, although you need to be a
Two Farmers Walk Into a Trial . . . .
Well, just finished a trial, which has kept me from posting for a week or two, and I don’t have anything substantive to say about the topics of this blog today. I thought, though, that I would share a humorous anecdote told by a witness at my trial, who used it to illustrate a defendant’s
The Case of the Billion Dollar Typo
Well, I’m getting ready for a trial, so I certainly don’t have time to read a 105 page ruling on reformation of ERISA governed benefit plans, and I suspect you don’t either. Fortunately for both of us, here’s a great one page article on a new major decision finding that a scrivener’s error – one
Hecker, Fees and A Broad Public Market
To me, intellectually, all roads lead to Hecker right now, as the sort of touchstone around which all thinking about fiduciary obligations and the amounts of fees charged in 401(k) plans must revolve. Hecker, of course, found not only that a broad range of offering meant that marketplace discipline guaranteed appropriate fees, but also
Divorce Me for My Money, Or Love, Continental Style
This is one of the great ERISA stories of all time – its like something out of a Boston Legal episode. I am speaking, of course, of the case, detailed here, of the Continental pilots who, concerned that the retirement plan may go belly up long before they retire, divorced their wives, executed QDROs
Harmon on Delegation of Fiduciary Duties in the First Circuit
Just briefly, as I have been traveling and haven’t reviewed the case myself, Roy Harmon on his excellent Health Plan Law blog, analyzes a decision out of the First Circuit on the manner in which a fiduciary can properly delegate its authority; the decision found that excessive formality wasn’t mandated. You can find Roy’s analysis
Time to Retire the 401(k)?
Many years ago, I remember hearing the comment that you knew Nixon was done for when Johnny Carson turned against him in his monologue, because Carson was a perfect proxy – some hip writer today (or maybe just some writer today trying to be hip) would instead call him an avatar – for the thinking
Preemption, the Supreme Court, and Job Losses
I had two disparate items that I wanted to post on, one of which I didn’t really think had anything to do with the subject matters of this blog but that, nonetheless, was too cool a graphic not to pass on. Sitting here this morning, though, I figured out how to hook them together, so
Conkright, Discretion and the Supreme Court
Here’s a nice little story on Conkright, and the new Supreme Court session. As the article explains in a nutshell:
The issue in Conkright vs. Frommert involves how much deference a court must give to an ERISA plan administrator’s interpretation of the terms of the plan. A group of Xerox Corp. retirees who left