Preemption is a tough defense to get around, particularly in the First Circuit, where it is taken quite seriously and numerous decisions expressly declare particular state law causes of action to be preempted by ERISA. One clever response to this problem, at least when the facts will allow the argument, is to try to sidestep
Long Term Disability Benefits
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…
Interpreting ERISA Plans and Insurance Policies
ERISA on the web generally does a nice job of chronicling ERISA decisions out of the Eleventh Circuit, but one of its recent posts, about an August 8th decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, jumped out at me more than most. The post discusses the case of Billings …
Long Term Disabilty Benefits, Human Behavior and Standards of Review
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Long Term Disability Benefits, Standard of Review
An article in the New York Times yesterday on men who simply won’t go back to work caught my eye because at times expressly and at other times by implication, it delves into the potent mix of cultural and behavioral forces that seem to impact what we offhandedly refer to as “work ethic.” The behavioral…