By Jon Braunstein and Kathleen Cahill Slaught
A US District Court in New Jersey recently held that an ERISA Plan’s anti-assignment provision trumped the plan participant’s assignment of benefits to a health care provider and thus the provider lacked standing to sue under ERISA. Neurological Surgery Associates, P.A. v. Aetna Life Insurance Company, et. al…
By: Jon Braunstein and Mark Casciari
On March 24, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will not review an appellate court decision that dismissed claims by medical providers for reimbursement of “manipulations under anesthesia” from ERISA Plans administered by Aetna, UnitedHealth, Cigna, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida.
The providers had…
On Thursday, March 27, 2014 at 12:00 p.m. Central, Seyfarth’s partner Howard Pianko, Antonis Polemitis of Ledra Capital LLC, and Arthur H. Kohn of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP will present “Bitcoins: Retirement Plan and IRA Investment in Digital Currencies.”
Bitcoins’ novelty and potential as an investment asset has resulted in considerable media attention.…
Sheryl Skibbe and Michelle Scannell
These days, even small victories can add up to hefty fee awards for ERISA plaintiffs’ counsel.
Under the bedrock litigation principle known as the “American Rule,” each party generally pays its own attorneys’ fees and costs. But for most ERISA lawsuits, the court may award reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs…
By: Amanda A. Sonneborn and James C. Goodfellow
Recently, the Sixth Circuit in Rochow v. Life Insurance Company of North America affirmed a district court’s award of a $3.8 million award to a long-term disability (“LTD”) plaintiff under an unjust enrichment theory. By way of background, Plaintiff, who suffered from HSV-Encephalitis, filed a claim for…
By: Ada W. Dolph and Justin T. Curley
ERISA defendants have long maintained that there is no statutory or constitutional right to a jury trial in ERISA cases. Almost always, the courts have agreed, citing ERISA’s trust law origins and the Seventh Amendment’s application only to suits seeking legal, not equitable, relief. The reasoning goes…
By: Ian Morrison and Anne Harris
You may have noticed that there aren’t nearly as many ERISA stock drop cases being filed as of late. It’s hard to imagine that the ERISA plaintiffs’ bar has simply decided to take it easy, so we thought we would look at a few possible explanations for this phenomenon:…
By: Ada W. Dolph and Justin T. Curley
In Jensen v. Solvay Chemicals, Inc., No. 11-8092 (July 2, 2013), the Tenth Circuit recently affirmed a district court’s determination that employees were not entitled to any relief for their employer’s violation of ERISA Section 204(h)’s notice requirements because the employees failed to establish that the…
By: Mark Casciari, Jim Goodfellow and Chris Busey
Few things in life are certain; for Benjamin Franklin, it was death and taxes. According to two officials from the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the division tasked with enforcing ERISA, we should now add an assertive EBSA. EBSA claims jurisdiction over all…
By: D. Ward Kallstrom and Michelle M. Scannell
In a recent case presenting the issue whether a supplemental long-term disability (“LTD”) policy was subject to ERISA under the DOL (“Safe Harbor”) regulations, the District of New Jersey found that an employer’s mere offering of a group policy with a group discount was a “contribution” sufficient…
