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Benefit Litigation
Summary Plan Descriptions and Discovery in ERISA Cases: the Latest from the First Circuit
The First Circuit issued an opinion in the case of Morales-Alejandro v. Medical Card System on Wednesday. The case, which involved a challenge to a denial of long term disability benefits, is noteworthy for two aspects. The first is that the case reaffirms this circuit’s reluctance to allow discovery beyond production of the administrative record…
401(k) Plans and Breach of Fiduciary Duty Lawsuits
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I have written before, and frequently (such as here and here), about the coming boom in litigation against plan sponsors and fiduciaries over alleged excessive fees and other alleged malfeasance in the administration of 401(k) plans. One point I have tried to drive home in my posts, including here and here, is that…
Behavioral Economics, the Pension Protection Act and 401(k) Litigation
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I have written before about my thesis that 401(k) litigation, and the tendency of individuals to pursue such suits, may be driven in part by the psychology of retirement benefits and the uncertainty for employees as to whether they will be able to fund their retirement that these types of retirement savings vehicles create, particularly…
The Interrelationship of ERISA and the ADA
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Benefit Litigation, Long Term Disability Benefits
I have talked in other posts about the rights of plans and their administrators to recoup overpayments of benefits directly from the beneficiary, and of the creative lawyering that has been employed – although generally without much success – by overpaid plan participants in the hope of avoiding paying the funds back. The United States…
Defined Benefit, Defined Contribution, and The Psychological Effect on Litigants
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Here is a very neat and interesting paper contrasting defined benefit plans – i.e. pensions – with defined contribution plans – i.e. 401(k) plans – and addressing, in particular: (1) the decline in the former in the workplace and replacement by the latter; and (2) the problems engendered by that change. In essence, the authors…
Merger and Anti-Cutback Provisions of ERISA, and a Handy Rule of Thumb
By Stephen Rosenberg on
This case, out of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, provides a nice little rule of thumb for amending, merging or otherwise altering retirement benefit plans – namely, that it makes it hard to get sued and lose if you make the changes in a way that avoids altering the actual benefit…
Still More on Structural Conflicts of Interest
Day 3 of my discussion of the First Circuit’s recent ruling concerning structural conflicts of interest and their impact on claims for benefits under ERISA: Workplace Prof blog has his take, and quotes from others, here, and one of my favorite, quirkier, law blogs, Appellate Law & Practice, has its take here.
A Survey of All the Circuits on the Effect on the Standard of Review of Structural Conflicts of Interest
One of the things lawyers learn early in their careers is that the time it takes to research a particular issue can be reduced dramatically by finding a good published decision out of one of the better federal courts on the issue; such an opinion will often include an excellent synopsis, at a minimum, of…
Current First Circuit Thinking on Structural Conflicts of Interest
Interesting decision out of the First Circuit yesterday, in the case of Denmark v. Liberty Life Assurance Company, that focused on the proper standard of review to apply in cases in which the administrator both decides the claim for benefits and is also the party that will have to pay the benefits if the…