I am asked on occasion about the topics of this blog and their connection to my practice, more particularly how I ended up focusing the blog on its two primary subjects. For years, my litigation practice has focused primarily on three areas: intellectual property, ERISA and insurance coverage, in no particular order. A joke which
On Intoxication and Accidental Death and Dismemberment Policies
I wrote a long time back about Stamp v. MetLife, a decision out of the United States District Court for Rhode Island on a particular, oft litigated, and unfortunately frequently repeated fact pattern: namely, whether an unwitnessed automobile accident causing death of an apparently intoxicated driver constituted an accident for purposes of ERISA governed
From Preemption to ERISA Standing, and Lots of Things In-Between
Philadelphia, New York, court hearings – I have been everywhere the past week or so other than at my desk where I could put up blog posts. Here’s a run down of interesting things I came across along the way that you may want to read. First, for those of you who can’t get enough
The Supreme Court’s Ruling in MetLife v. Glenn
How dare the Supreme Court issue a major ERISA ruling while I am tied up in court this morning! How inconsiderate of my schedule. Given that there are only a few of us blogging regularly on these issues, seems to me the least the Court could have done is coordinate the release of its opinion
A Brief List of Things Worth Reading
Even when trying cases, I have never had a week so busy since launching the blog that I haven’t been able to find time to post. David Rossmiller likes to say that work is the curse of the blogging class, but even when really busy, I have always found writing up a blog post
Two More ERISA Cases for the Supreme Court?
The good folks who write the SCOTUS blog are engaged in one of their periodic attempts to read the tea leaves and predict what cases the Supreme Court will choose to hear. This time, they think the Court will review two ERISA cases, Geddes v. United Staffing – which concerns the standard of review
Follow the Numbers: the Evolution in ERISA Law
I have noted two things – well, many things, only two of which are relevant to this post – in the past, one the line that Marx was wrong about a lot of things, but he was right that everything is economics, and the second that we are beginning to see an incremental evolution in
There’s A Public/Private Sector Distinction For a Reason
Two of my favorite bloggers ended up at the same place on a topic of interest over the past week, although from different directions and apparently unwittingly. The WorkPlace Prof posted last week on the idea being floated in a number of state legislatures that the states or their pension plans manage private sector 401(k)
Who Let the Additional Insured Out? Who? Who?
It seems like these days I have been reading a lot of interesting things on the subjects covered by this blog, many of which I either haven’t been able to pass along because of time constraints, or haven’t passed along because there isn’t enough to say about them to warrant a full blown post. I
Extraterritorial Application of ERISA
Ever wonder about ERISA’s effect on benefits provided to employees assigned to overseas’ posts? Didn’t think so. But Paul Secunda has.