In the first and so far last of our series of interviews with people of interest in the insurance and ERISA communities (I will do more at some point, but the interview post turns out to be the most difficult and time consuming to do well, which is probably why most people leave them to
I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter: How Many Deductibles Apply to Claims Involving a Butter Like Substance
Here’s a tasty little tidbit for you insurance coverage junkies out there. Law.com has this interesting article on a ruling as to the number of deductibles that apply to suits alleging lung injuries from the flavoring used in manufacturing microwave popcorn. As the article explains, a New York state appeals court has found that the
ERISA, Investment Strategies and the Duty to Investigate
ERISA litigation, particularly in the area of retirement benefits, is one of those areas of the law that can be particularly complicated because both the governing body of law and the underlying fact pattern to which it is applied can be tremendously complex. Take, for instance, the example of disputes over whether the fiduciaries of
Determining Fiduciary Status: And the Computer Says . . .
Fiduciary status is the touchstone of the law of ERISA. From that status flows many of the obligations that ERISA can impose on a party, as well as extensive potential liability. For those of you wondering about who is a fiduciary and when for these purposes, Susan Mangiero has found a really fun (well, if
What’s Good for the Goose: Should the Rules of Electronic Discovery Apply Equally to All Cases?
Michael Fox, who jots down his thoughts about employment law and other things over on his excellent blog, Jottings by an Employer’s Lawyer, raised an interesting point about electronic discovery in a post the other day when he was commenting on my recent discussion of whether electronic discovery threatens to render arbitration the better
One View on What’s Wrong With the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act
In yesterday’s post on Darren Abernethy’s paper on Fair Share statutes, I ended up riffing on the question of whether the Maryland legislature, by putting before the courts a particularly bad version of such a statute, had distorted the development of the law of ERISA preemption in a manner that would only hurt the cause
Preemption of Fair Share Acts: Did the Maryland Legislature Manage to Set The Whole Issue Back a Thousand Years?
Here is Darren Abernethy’s law review note on preemption of state fair share acts that mandate that employers provide certain levels of health insurance. His note, which I have discussed before, is very well done, and Darren has generously allowed me to share it here in full. As readers may recall from earlier posts,
Complying with the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act
I have written a fair amount about whether the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act is preempted by ERISA, but not too much about the practicalities of complying with the act for as long as it remains unchallenged and unpreempted. This despite the fact that I have been asked a lot of questions about compliance by
Where Patent Law Stands Today
On Friday I feel free to deviate from the usual topics of this blog into the topics covered under the digressions category over on the left hand side of the blog. Today being Friday, that’s what I’m going to do, this time returning to an issue I have discussed before, the Supreme Court’s targeting last
Choice Architecture, 401(k) Plans and Race: The Answer to a Conundrum?
I have talked before on this blog about behavioral economics and choice architecture, which concerns the idea that how we structure retirement savings options will affect whether, and how successfully, people save for retirement. You can find a couple of my earlier posts on this issue here and here. In a provocative post –