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
Standard of Review
More from the Academy on ERISA Standards of Review and the Conflicted Decision Maker
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Benefit Litigation, Standard of Review
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…
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…
Is More Supreme Court Review of ERISA Standards of Review in the Works?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Conflicts of Interest, Standard of Review
With lawyers, how we view an opinion, and for that matter a blog post, frequently depends on the focus of our practices and the things that, as a result, we are looking for. I was reminded of this over the weekend when I came across this post on Appellate Law and Practice, a blog run…
Abatie, Part II
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I don’t want to leave the impression that the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Abatie is a wacky or fringe decision, or that I think that myself. Far from it. The new rule it announces for that circuit on the effect of structural conflicts is certainly well within the margins of current mainstream jurisprudence on the…
First vs Ninth, and Structural Conflicts of Interest in ERISA Litigation
By Stephen Rosenberg on
A frequent correspondent, even though he normally runs from ERISA cases as though he ‘d been handed a basket full of snakes, forwarded me the Ninth Circuit’s decision from earlier this week in Abatie v Alta Health and Life Insurance. Fascinating opinion. I could write an article or even a book on the…
Proving a Conflict of Interest in the First Circuit
By Stephen Rosenberg on
What happens when a long time business relationship falls apart, and the principal who had been serving as the administrator of the business’ employee benefit plans starts making benefit determinations intended to avoid unnecessarily enriching the other principal? Well, one of the most interesting things that happens – besides expensive litigation and an eventual award…
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 …
It’s a bird, it’s a plan . .
This being – roughly – the start of a new month, I engaged in my usual habit of reviewing any ERISA decisions issued in the past month by the courts in the First Circuit, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything while busy with the usual run of business. As it turns out, on…
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…