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Benefits
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March 19, 2024
EV Charging Biz Pitches $400K Ch. 11 Staff Retention Plan
Charge Enterprises Inc., a company that builds electric vehicle charging stations and other infrastructure, has urged a Delaware bankruptcy judge to let it offer about $400,000 in bonuses to keep a dozen employees the firm deemed critical during its Chapter 11 case.
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March 19, 2024
Laborers Benefit Funds Ink $2.45M Settlement In Transfer Suit
Three New York-based asphalt workers are seeking approval of a $2.45 million settlement to their long-running federal class action against two union benefit funds, looking to resolve claims that the funds illegally refused to transfer money to another set of funds.
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March 18, 2024
7th Circ. Wants Del. High Court's Input On Stock Shares Row
The Seventh Circuit on Friday asked Delaware's top court to clarify a ruling it made earlier this year upholding the enforceability of forfeiture-for-competition provisions in limited partnership agreements, saying it found "meaningful differences" between that case and an ex-manager's bid before it to keep the stock sale proceeds he earned before working for a competitor.
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March 18, 2024
Leerink Enticed Goldman Exec With False Promises, Suit Says
An investment banker says she was lured away from a senior position at Goldman Sachs to Boston-based Leerink Partners with what turned out to be a meaningless job title and false promises of guaranteed bonuses, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Massachusetts state court.
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March 18, 2024
Insurer Settles Target Manager's Suit Over Disability Benefits
An insurance company reached a deal with a Target Corp. manager to end his lawsuit alleging the company unlawfully stopped the disability payments he was receiving to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from a George Floyd protest, a filing in Wisconsin federal court said.
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March 18, 2024
Decline In EBSA Funding May Hurt Mental Health Parity Efforts
The U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm warned Congress in its latest budget request that it may have to scale back its efforts to implement federal mental health parity laws and the No Surprises Act by 2025.
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March 18, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Multimillion-dollar e-cigarette settlements, $4 billion in stock buybacks and a $6.1 million appraisal tweak were among the big-dollar items logged in the Delaware Court of Chancery's ledger last week. Also on the docket: a Panama port project, a news outlet's defamation case, drone disputes and a flood of mail from Tesla shareholders. In case you missed it, here's all the latest from the Chancery Court.
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March 18, 2024
Hospital Network Let $1B Plan Pay Excessive Fees, Suit Says
A Northern California hospital network cost workers millions of dollars by failing to leverage the "mammoth" size of its retirement plan to get a better deal on recordkeeping and administrative fees, according to a proposed class action.
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March 18, 2024
Doctor Can't Yank NBA Fraud Plea, Feds Insist
Prosecutors have told a Manhattan federal judge that a doctor accused of assisting a group of NBA players in creating false documents to defraud the league's healthcare plan shouldn't be allowed to yank his guilty plea, arguing evidence shows his guilt and that too much time has passed.
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March 18, 2024
4th Circ. Preview: Airport Mishap, Inmate Pay Launch March
The Fourth Circuit's spring session will task the court with refereeing a power struggle between Virginia regulators and the authority that runs Washington, D.C.'s airports — stemming from a workplace amputation — and delving into the "honest belief" doctrine's role in a Family Medical Leave Act case.
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March 15, 2024
Texas Justices Side With Dallas In Retirement Fund Row
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday handed a win to the city of Dallas in its fight against a retirement fund, saying the fund doesn't have veto power over city lawmakers in a dispute over an ordinance that enshrined term limits for fund board members.
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March 15, 2024
Cornell Workers Want High Court Review Of ERISA Fee Suit
A group of Cornell University employees asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review their sweeping class action accusing the university of mismanaging its employees' retirement savings, saying the Second Circuit deepened a circuit split over what it takes to bring prohibited transaction allegations under federal benefits law.
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March 15, 2024
Sanderson Beats Chicken Buyers' Antitrust Retrial Attempt
Direct chicken purchasers who lost a price-fixing trial against Sanderson Farms cannot have another shot at bringing their case to a jury because their first trial was fair, and their circumstantial evidence couldn't defeat the company's competing proof, an Illinois federal judge has ruled.
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March 15, 2024
9th Circ. Pauses Benefits Case Awaiting UBH Challenge
The Ninth Circuit has told a trial court to halt what United Behavioral Health has called an improper revival of a proposed class action alleging the insurance company illegally denied coverage for mental health and substance abuse treatment.
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March 15, 2024
Ohio Ambulance Co. Says HR Firm Botched Tax Returns
An Ohio ambulance company accused its human resources management firm of failing to accurately prepare and submit amended tax returns that would have allowed the company to claim pandemic-era tax credits, according to a complaint filed in an Ohio federal court.
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March 15, 2024
GE Reaches Settlement Deal In Ex-Workers' Severance Fight
General Electric Co. told a Kansas federal court it has reached a deal to resolve a federal benefits lawsuit from two former wind farm workers who alleged they were shortchanged on severance, a settlement coming after the energy giant lost a motion to dismiss the case in December.
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March 15, 2024
IRS Asked To Change Effective Date In Part-Time Worker Rule
The effective date for proposed IRS rules on participation of long-term, part-time employees in retirement plans would violate administrative law if not changed in final regulations, an attorney speaking for a benefits organization told the agency and the U.S. Treasury Department at a hearing Friday.
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March 15, 2024
Apple, Investors Cut $490M China Sales Deal Ahead Of Trial
Apple has made a $490 million deal to resolve a shareholder class action accusing the company and its top brass of misleading investors about iPhone sales in China in a legal fight that was slated for a September jury trial, according to court documents filed Friday in California federal court.
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March 15, 2024
DOL Says PBGC Overpayment Returns Don't Violate ERISA
The U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm says it won't take enforcement action against pension plans that return overpayments made by the nation's pension backstop agency during the COVID-19 pandemic, as Congress continues to probe an accidental $127 million overpayment to a Teamsters plan.
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March 15, 2024
$3B In Employment Tax Credits Claimed In Scheme, Feds Say
Three New Jersey men who said they were leaders of religious and charitable organizations fraudulently claimed nearly $3 billion in employment tax credits from a federal pandemic loan program, according to a criminal complaint filed in New Jersey federal court.
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March 15, 2024
Biz Groups Back Yale Win In 2nd Circ. ERISA Battle
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the Second Circuit that Yale University employees are trying to set a "wildly impractical" standard in their request for a new jury trial after they were awarded zero damages in their suit accusing the school of saddling their retirement plan with high fees.
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March 14, 2024
NC Tells Appeals Court Worker Was Transferred, Not Demoted
The state of North Carolina has asked a state appeals court to uphold a state agency's determination that a Department of Health and Human Services employee was not unlawfully demoted, arguing that the facts indicate that the worker was merely reassigned.
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March 14, 2024
Extended Workers' Comp Needs High Bar, NC Justices Told
The North Carolina Department of Public Safety told the state's top court Wednesday that injured workers must clear a higher hurdle to keep collecting disability benefits after their initial workers' compensation runs out, saying an appellate court got it wrong by applying a more lax standard.
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March 14, 2024
Mass. High Court Says Tufts Win In Tenure Case 'Premature'
Tenured professors at Tufts University whose salaries were slashed under a newly enacted requirement that they bring in at least half their income through research grants will have another chance to prove those pay cuts undermine academic freedom, Massachusetts' highest court said Thursday.
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March 14, 2024
8th Circ. Questions Patient Standing In ERISA Claims Dispute
An Eighth Circuit panel appeared skeptical Thursday of reviving a suit from patients insured by UnitedHealth Group alleging a billing practice known as cross-plan offsetting violated federal benefits law, with judges questioning whether the patients sufficiently established injury.
Expert Analysis
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Indemnification In Exec Separation Deals: Read The Fine Print
The Delaware Chancery Court’s recent decision denying the former CEO of space infrastructure company Momentus the advancement of legal fees highlights the importance of considering post-employment indemnification and advancement rights in executive separation agreements, says Daniel Morgan at Blank Rome.
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Benefits And Beyond: Fixing Employee Contribution Failures
Employers must address employee contribution failures promptly in order to avoid losing significant tax benefits of 401(k) or 403(b) plans, but the exact correction procedures vary depending on whether contributions were less than or greater than intended, say attorneys at Seyfarth Shaw.
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FMLA Confusion Persists Despite New DOL Advisory
A recent U.S. Department of Labor advisory opinion provides some clarity regarding the Family and Medical Leave Act's handling of holiday weeks, but the FMLA remains a legal minefield that demands fact-specific analysis of each employee's unique situation, says Nicholas Schneider at Eckert Seamans.
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5 Management Tips To Keep Law Firm Merger Talks Moving
Many law firm mergers that make solid business sense still fall apart due to the costs and frustrations of inefficient negotiations, but firm managers can increase the chance of success by effectively planning and executing merger discussions, say Lisa Smith and Kristin Stark at Fairfax Associates.
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What 3rd Circ. Niaspan Decision Means For Class Cert.
The Third Circuit's recent denial of class certification in the Niaspan antitrust case underscores its particularly stringent understanding of the implicit ascertainability requirement, which further fuels confusion in the courts, threatens uneven results and increases the risk of forum shopping, says Michael Lazaroff at Rimon Law.
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3 Abortion Enforcement Takeaways 1 Year After Dobbs
A year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, confusion continues to abound amid the quagmire of state-level enforcement risks, federal efforts to protect reproductive health care, and fights over geolocation data, say Elena Quattrone and Sarah Hall at Epstein Becker.
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Rethinking In-Office Attendance For Associate Retention
The hybrid office attendance model doesn't work for all employees, but it does for many — and balancing these two groups is important for associate retention and maintaining a BigLaw firm culture that supports all attorneys, says Summer Eberhard at Major Lindsey.
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Weighing The Risks Of AI For Employee Benefits Admin
Although artificial intelligence has the potential to transform employers' administration of benefits, with these opportunities come great risks related to Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duties and preemption considerations, making the evolving state law landscape even more critical, say attorneys at Michael Best.
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Murdaugh Trials Offer Law Firms Fraud Prevention Reminders
As the fraud case against Alex Murdaugh continues to play out, the evidence and narrative presented at his murder trial earlier this year may provide lessons for law firms on implementing robust internal controls that can detect and prevent similar kinds of fraud, say Travis Casner and Helga Zauner at Weaver and Tidwell.
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What Courts Say About Workers' Comp And Medical Marijuana
Whether employers and insurance carriers are required or allowed to reimburse employees for out-of-pocket costs for treating work-related injuries with medical marijuana has spawned a debate, and the state courts that have addressed this matter are split on a number of issues, say Alexandra Hassell and Anthony Califano at Seyfarth.
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What's Next For 5th Circ.'s ACA Preventive Care Suit
The Fifth Circuit's high-profile Braidwood v. Becerra case has significant ramifications for Affordable Care Act coverage requirements, and there is precedent to suggest that it could be ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, says Nicholas DiCarlo at Zuckerman Spaeder.
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Firm Tips For Helping New Lawyers Succeed Post-Pandemic
Ten steps can help firms significantly enhance the experience of attorneys who started their careers in the coronavirus pandemic era, including facilitating opportunities for cross-firm connection, which can ultimately help build momentum for business development, says Lana Manganiello at Equinox Strategy Partners.
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Opinion
6th Circ. Judge Correctly ID'd ERISA Civil Procedure Conflict
While the Sixth Circuit in Tranbarger v. Lincoln Life & Annuity recently affirmed a ruling that denied the plaintiff's disability benefits, one judge's concurrence should be commended for arguing that adjudication of such Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases fundamentally contradicts the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Key Takeaways From Del. Chancery's Oracle Toss
The Delaware Chancery Court's recent finding that Oracle founder Larry Ellison didn't try to influence the company to overpay for its NetSuite acquisition offers important lessons on the determination of issues of control, including the importance of establishing an independent special committee, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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How REITs Can Prep For SEC's Repurchase Disclosure Rules
With real estate investment trusts' share repurchase activity on the rise, REITs should beware the potential enforcement risks that may arise from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rules requiring additional disclosures regarding such repurchases, says Zach Swartz at Vinson & Elkins.