Regular readers know I like hard data, including statistics or other quantitative support for a position. In their absence, most legal and policy arguments are, well, just opinions. With that in mind, LegalMetric, which studies and reports on patent litigation data, has provided an interesting snapshot of the impact on patent infringement litigation of the
Should Credit Scoring Be Used to Set Auto Insurance Rates?
For those of you who don’t know, Massachusetts is in the process of dragging its insurance system out of some sort of strange, almost pre-Thatcherite British collectivist era, and into the modern American economic hurly-burly that marks pretty much every other part of consumer life. Today’s Boston Globe has an interesting little article on
Life Is An ERISA Carnival, Believe It or Not
By the way, I meant to mention this on Monday, but a million different fires that had to be put out got in the way, so I’ll mention it today instead: Suzanne Wynn’s ERISA carnival from this past weekend surveys and provides links to a truly interesting range of posts on ERISA related issues. I’d
Some Interesting Papers on the Issue of State Health Reform Mandates
I have posted a fair amount on the impact of what are becoming known generically as “Fair Share” statutes, which are attempts to “reform” health insurance on a state level by means of mandating that employers provide health insurance benefits. I have talked about three main themes in my various posts on this topic, all
All You Need to Know About Anti-Concurrent Cause Policy Language, Hurricane Katrina and Insurance Coverage Law
What is the sound of the internet clapping? Who knows. A healthy round of applause is due, though, for prominent insurance coverage blogger David Rossmiller, who has spent the last several months on his blog -aptly named the Insurance Coverage Law Blog – detailing and dissecting the insurance coverage disputes arising in the aftermath
Bowater, Preemption, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, Massachusetts Health Care Costs, and Whatever Else Is On My Mind This Morning
If David Rossmiller can do a potpourri to avoid writing a full fledged blog post then, by gosh, so can I. Conveniently enough, I had some three small items on my mind this morning anyway, all of which I will mention here in one fell swoop:
? More on Bowater: For those of you
The First Circuit’s Road Map for Terminating Benefit Plans
Just a fairly short post on a technical ERISA issue that the First Circuit ruled on a few days ago, namely the steps that have to be followed to terminate or amend a benefit plan, at least with regards to the documentation and formalities needed to do so. In Coffin v. Bowater, Inc., the First
Why Health Care Inflation Numbers Justify ERISA Preemption of State Health Care Reform Legislation
Someone once said that Marx was wrong about a lot of things, but he was right that everything is economics. Nothing illustrates this maxim more than the various attempts by states to get around ERISA preemption – such as discussed here and here – and mandate health insurance coverage in one manner or another. These
Some Thoughts on Behavioral Economics, 401(k) Plan Architecture and the Potential Liabilities of Fiduciaries
I have blogged before about behavioral economics, and the question of whether how we structure retirement investment choices will affect whether plan participants successfully save for retirement. Two recent articles really drive home this point. In the first one, “Choice Architecture and Retirement Savings Plans,” the authors posit that the design of
Would Increasing Taxes on Hedge Fund Managers Harm Pension Plans?
Just a quick note on something you may not want to miss, while I work on something more elaborate and, to me, thought provoking to post either later today or on Monday; those of you interested in hedge funds and pension investments may want to take a look at this article in today’s New York