By: Ryan Tikker

2022 has seen an increase in putative class actions brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) (29 U.S.C. §§ 1109 and 1132) against plan fiduciaries. Plaintiffs typically allege that plan fiduciaries breached the duties that ERISA imposes of employee retirement plans, namely, that the fiduciaries breached their duties of loyalty

By: Ryan Tikker

Recently, the Ninth Circuit addressed and further clarified the requirement of a “full and fair review” in the context of a long-term disability benefit case under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). In matters that go to litigation, the Ninth Circuit held that a district court may not rely on rationales

By: Mark Casciari and Michael Cederoth

Seyfarth Synopsis: If an ERISA plaintiff establishes a fiduciary breach, expect the computation of damages to be a complicated process that may enhance damages through judgment.  And a court judgment in complicated cases can take years to issue.  This is the lesson from a recent decision of the Court

By: Tom Horan, Ian Morrison, and Sam Schwartz-Fenwick

Seyfarth Synopsis: Recognizing that the Plan contained an unambiguous arbitration  provision, and that “ERISA claims are generally arbitrable,” the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals nonetheless found that arbitration could not be compelled where the provision prospectively barred the plaintiff from pursuing certain statutory remedies.

In Smith v.

By Mark Casciari and James Hlawek

Seyfarth Synopsis:  A federal district court denied a motion to dismiss an ERISA complaint that was based in large part on secondhand “information and belief” allegations about the defendants’ business operations.  The decision serves as a warning to defendants that they may be forced into costly discovery based on

By: Rebecca K. Bryant, Sam M. Schwartz-Fenwick, and Ian H. Morrison

Seyfarth Synopsis: A recent 10th Circuit decision holding that in order for the abuse of discretion standard to apply in litigation the claims administrator must provide participants with actual notice of discretionary authority or notice of a document affecting standard of review

By: Mark Casciari and Michael W. Stevens

Seyfarth Synopsis: A recent Supreme Court decision on federal securities law may hold ramifications for ERISA practitioners by addressing whether disgorgement is an equitable remedy.

ERISA’s civil enforcement provisions generally allow the federal courts to award appropriate “equitable” relief. A permissible equitable remedy is disgorgement, which, in

By Michael W. Stevens and Mark Casciari

Seyfarth Synopsis:  The Supreme Court dismissed, prior to any discovery, claims of ERISA fiduciary breach because the plan participant-plaintiffs failed to show that the alleged breaches caused them concrete injury.  As a general matter, this decision will make it more difficult for plaintiffs to claim ERISA violations in