PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - ERISA Forfeiture Litigation
ERISA Blog | Changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rules A Primer for Self-Insured Group Health Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What the J&J Case Means for Plan Administrators
The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New Federal Rule Aims to Hold Investment Advisors to a Higher Standard
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 – Top-Hat Plans — Special Edition Podcast
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 - Health and Welfare Plan Developments — Special Edition Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Partial Plan Terminations
Podcast Episode 189: Adding Context to Compliance and Color To Your Legal Practice
#WorkforceWednesday: SECURE Act 2.0 - What 401(k) Plan Sponsors Need to Know - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2022 Year-End Checklist
An Inside Look as a Juror - FCRA Focus Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Multiemployer Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Court Decisions Impacting Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries
(A)ESOP's Fables - The Income and Estate Tax-Free ESOP
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What Constitutes Plan Assets Under ERISA?
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Group Health Plan Service Provider Compensation Disclosure Requirements
Update and Discussion on Legal and Practical Issues
Welcome to 'Just Compensation'
#WorkforceWednesday: SCOTUS in Review, Biden Acts to Limit Non-Competes, NY HERO Act Model Safety Plans - Employment Law This Week®
Commonly referred to as "excessive fee" litigation, class actions that allege retirement plan investments charge too much and earn too little have increased over the past two decades. Excessive fee cases are difficult to...more
A federal district court in Massachusetts dismissed ERISA fiduciary breach and prohibited transaction claims against 401(k) plan fiduciaries, ruling that the prohibited transaction claims were time-barred and the fiduciary...more
This month’s Friday Five explores decisions regarding the transfer of an ERISA action that was filed in a state where an insurer did not maintain sufficient minimum contacts, an award of attorneys’ fees, costs, and...more
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to petitions for attorneys’ fees, unpersuasive self-reported evidence of disability, and a dilatory attempt to augment the administrative record....more
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to an award of attorney’s fees (but not) costs, class certification in an ERISA benefits case, a court finding that a physician claimant was disabled from his own occupation, a...more
In Fisher v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184024 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 5, 2020), the court held that a remand order requiring the claim administrator to reassess its denial of benefits constituted a sufficient degree...more
The Sixth Circuit recently reversed a district court’s decision to award attorneys’ fees after the Circuit concluded that the claim on which the fees were awarded was subject to mandatory arbitration, and noted that the...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld an award of attorneys’ fees payable by a health plan sponsor to the plan administrators that the plan sponsor had sued. See Central Valley Ag Cooperative, et al. v....more
In 2010, Chief Justice John Roberts observed that that ERISA is “an enormously complex and detailed statute.” Conkright v. Frommert, 559 U.S. 506, 509 (2010)....more
In Castillo v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 25985 (9th Cir. Aug. 17, 2020), the Ninth Circuit held that attorneys' fees incurred during the administrative review process cannot be recovered as "other equitable...more
This week, this Ninth Circuit once again issued a number of opinions arising from the employment relationship. Here, we focus on two of particular interest. In the first, the Court sought to unravel whether an emergency room...more
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to: a court’s decision to hold an evidentiary hearing where factual disputes precluded summary judgment; dismissal of a claim for life insurance benefits of an ex-spouse who...more
The Fifth Circuit concluded that an individual plaintiff was not entitled to attorneys’ fees, even though she persuaded the Fifth Circuit to vacate and remand a summary judgment decision in favor of the Humana Health Plan,...more
Second Circuit Affirms Decision Rejecting ERISA Claims for Retiree Health Benefits The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has affirmed a district court’s decision dismissing claims under the Employee Retirement...more
In Gorbacheva v. Abbott Laboratories Extended Disability Plan, et al., 29 U.S. App. LEXIS 36542 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 10, 2019), the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's award of attorneys' fees to an ERISA claimant as...more
SCOTUS Reviews "Blissful Ignorance" as Statute of Limitations Defense - On December 4, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Intel Corp. Inv. Policy Comm. v. Sulyma, 139 S. Ct. 2692 (2019). The question...more
In Ariana M. v. Humana Health Plan of Texas, Inc., No. 18-20700, 2019 WL 5866677 (5th Cir. Nov. 8, 2019), the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a plaintiff’s petition for attorneys’ fees under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(g). This...more
The Fifth Circuit concluded that a plan participant was not entitled to recover attorneys’ fees for obtaining a remand order requiring the district court to apply a de novo, rather than abuse of discretion, standard of review...more
In a recent summary order in an ERISA LTD benefits case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a plaintiff’s appeal concerning the amount of attorneys’ fees awarded by the district court. In Solnin v. Sun Life and...more
Editor's Overview - In last quarter's Newsletter, we commented that all eyes were on President Trump's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, as the outcome of the appointment process can have a significant impact on the...more
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to fee shifting in favor of defendants, interpretation of AD&D policy provisions, a strict take on the language required to initiate an administrative appeal, and a reiteration...more
In Gross v. Sun Life Assur. Co. of Can., No. 09-11678-RWZ, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107918 (D. Mass. June 28, 2018), a District Court decided the appropriate prejudgment interest rate for a Kentucky resident was the...more
It didn’t take long for the first decision in a lawsuit against vantage Benefits and its owners when they defaulted. A default judgment was handed down by Judge David C. Godbey of the U.S. District Court for the Northern...more
Editor's Overview - For over two decades, federal law has required covered health plans and insurers to ensure that certain mental health benefits are in parity with offered medical/surgical benefits. The meaning of...more
The Ninth Circuit ruled that a district court erred by failing to consider the entire course of the litigation when analyzing a request for attorney’s fees under ERISA and remanded the case for a calculation of fees. A plan...more