We have talked a lot about the different standards of review that courts should apply when reviewing an administrator’s decision concerning a claim for benefits under ERISA. But what about if the administrator never applied any review at all before the dispute ended up in the courts? Courts differ on whether this should change the
Hurricanes and Homeowners Insurance
Investment Advisor Insurance
This is neat. Here’s a nice little story right smack at the confluence of this blog’s topics, ERISA litigation and insurance coverage problems. The story describes a new insurance product being released by Travelers providing investment advisors and similar entities with expanded coverage for the risks associated with providing investment services; the policy will cover
Zelinsky, Wal-Mart, and the Fair Share Act
Well, this is interesting. Here is a forthcoming law review article from Ed Zelinsky of Cardozo on the Maryland Fair Share Act, Wal-Mart and preemption, issues I talked about here and here. As the abstract shows, the professor concludes that a federal district court correctly held that Maryland’s statute targeting Wal-Mart’s health insurance program
Logrolling 102
Where do I get my information and how do I stay up to date? From sources like BNA’s new pension and benefits blog, hosted right now by Nell Hennessy, who has the experience to really discuss pension issues. She has a nice post up right now listing blogs, including this one, that cover
More from the Academy on ERISA Standards of Review and the Conflicted Decision Maker
Allright, here’s another law review article, this time out of the Oklahoma Law Review by way of Workplace Prof, complaining about the standards of review currently applied by the courts to ERISA benefit denial cases. Although I haven’t yet read it – I just finished Langbein’s on the same topic, and I’m not ready
Bad Faith Litigation: Do the Numbers Add Up?
I am a little bit of a skeptic – I don’t think it has devolved yet to cynicism – when it comes to insurance bad faith litigation. Done right, a state law system of bad faith rules and rights can establish appropriate boundaries for all three sides of the insurance triangle – the insurer, the
The Unum Provident Problem
I have spent some time recently reading a draft version of Yale Professor John Langbein’s article, Trust Law as Regulatory Law: The Unum/Provident Scandal and Judicial Review of Benefit Denials under ERISA. For those of you who have more socially redeeming hobbies (like mowing the lawn, watching paint dry, pretty much just about anything I
Coastal Homeowners Insurance – Distorting the Market or a FAIR Complaint?
Here’s an interesting story today about the Massachusetts Attorney General challenging the rate increases that have been approved for the state’s homeowners’ insurer of last resort, the FAIR plan. The problem is one that is riling coastal homeowners’ insurance markets up and down the eastern seaboard, namely the rate increases being imposed by insurers –
Discovery of Reserves and Other Repetitive Events
Here is a nice post on whether claim reserves are discoverable in insurance coverage or bad faith litigation, with some case law on the topic as well. The discovery of claim reserve information is one of those issues that is a consistent point of dispute from one coverage or bad faith action to the next.