Benefits

  • December 02, 2025

    Vanguard Investors' Attys Seek $8.3M Fee

    Attorneys representing investors that settled with Vanguard for $25 million to end claims the company improperly triggered an asset sell-off that damaged investors asked a Pennsylvania federal court on Tuesday to award them $8.3 million in fees in addition to other expenses.

  • December 02, 2025

    6th Circ. Affirms UnitedHealth's Escape From Preempted Suit

    The Sixth Circuit on Tuesday backed a decision to toss a worker's lawsuit accusing his employer and UnitedHealth and its subsidiaries of defrauding him into reimbursing his health insurance company for $25,000, agreeing with a lower court that federal benefits law completely preempted his state law claims.

  • December 02, 2025

    Post-Gazette Publisher Tries Again To Pause Benefits Order

    If the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette must restore its union-represented editorial staff's pre-2020 healthcare benefits, it will shut down, the newspaper's publisher claimed in a brief filed with the Third Circuit, requesting another shot at pausing an injunction that compelled the paper to restore the benefits.

  • December 02, 2025

    Plan Members Assert Standing In Cigna Data Breach Fight

    A group of Cigna health plan participants who claimed that the company failed to protect their data when it tracked their website activities asked a Pennsylvania federal judge not to throw out the suit, arguing that the proposed class had standing to sue over the alleged violations of state and federal privacy laws.

  • December 02, 2025

    CSX Must Face Ex-Employee's FMLA Retaliation Suit

    CSX Transportation Inc. can't escape a former employee's lawsuit alleging he was unlawfully fired for taking medical leave, with a Florida federal judge ruling that the dismissal of class claims in a similar case didn't start the clock ticking on the ex-worker's deadline to file suit.

  • December 02, 2025

    X, Former Workers Lay Down Swords In Arbitration Fee Fight

    X Corp. and employees laid off after Twitter's 2022 acquisition by Elon Musk told an Illinois federal judge they have ended their battle over claims that the social media company unlawfully refused to pick up the tab for arbitration fees.

  • December 02, 2025

    $4.6M Garnet Health Deal Over Retirement Plan Gets Initial OK

    A New York federal judge granted initial approval Tuesday to a $4.6 million class action settlement between Garnet Health Medical Center and workers who challenged their employee retirement plan's fees and investments, which comes after parties reported a deal to end the case in September.

  • December 01, 2025

    Home Depot Ex-Worker's Appeal In 401(k) Suit Dismissed

    The Eleventh Circuit on Monday tossed an appeal by a former Home Depot worker in a proposed class action alleging the company misspent forfeited employer contributions in its employee 401(k) plan, several months after a Georgia lower court concluded that the lawsuit failed to state a claim.

  • December 01, 2025

    Kessler Topaz To Lead Apple Investors In Siri AI Plans Suit

    Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP will represent a putative class of Apple investors who claim the technology giant was overly bullish on its timeline for implementing certain artificial intelligence-based features for its digital personal assistant Siri.

  • December 01, 2025

    J&J Narrows Ex-Employees' Prescription Benefits Suit

    Johnson & Johnson narrowed a proposed class action claiming it unlawfully overcharged employees through a prescription drug benefits program, with a New Jersey federal judge ruling workers leading the suit failed to show how allegedly excessive fees the company paid to a benefits manager caused participants' costs to rise.

  • December 01, 2025

    Ex-NJ Police Officer Wins COVID-Related Disability Benefits

    A Garden State police officer who contracted long COVID after responding to a nursing home emergency won reinstatement of his accidental disability retirement benefits Monday, after a New Jersey appeals panel ruled that the pension board acted arbitrarily in denying his claim despite medical evidence and credibility findings in his favor.

  • December 01, 2025

    DOD Axes Gender Marker Change Rule For Benefits Database

    The U.S. Defense Department issued a rule on Monday rolling back Biden-era procedures that allowed retirees, dependents and contractor employees to request a change in their gender identification in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System.

  • December 01, 2025

    11th Circ. Reverses Energy Co. Win In Investor Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit has revived a proposed class action against NextEra Energy Inc. seeking to hold the energy company liable for a drop in its share price after political interference allegations emerged against its subsidiary Florida Power and Light Co.

  • December 01, 2025

    Judge-Shopping Sanctions Order Must Stand, 11th Circ. Told

    The Alabama federal judges who sanctioned a trio of civil rights attorneys for allegedly judge shopping are defending that outcome, telling the Eleventh Circuit the controversial process was above board and rejecting the "scheming" attorneys' claims that they simply wanted to ensure they received a randomly assigned judge.

  • December 01, 2025

    Attys Seek $99M From Colgate-Palmolive ERISA Pension Deal

    Attorneys representing Colgate-Palmolive retirees asked a New York federal court to approve $99 million in attorney fees and expenses from a $332 million megadeal ending claims the company skimped on pensioners' lump-sum retirement payouts, a request that comes after the court initially signed off on the settlement in October.

  • December 01, 2025

    5th Circ. Ends DOL Appeals Over Biden-Era Fiduciary Regs

    The Fifth Circuit shuttered two appeals from the U.S. Department of Labor that aimed to revive Biden-era regulations expanding the definition of a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, after the agency told the appellate court it intended to drop the cases.

  • December 01, 2025

    Nurses Collective, Class In OT Row Can Proceed

    Nurses who accused an insurer of misclassifying them as overtime-exempt can keep their collective in place and proceed as a class, a North Carolina federal judge said in an order entered Monday, keeping in place a magistrate judge's recommendation.

  • November 26, 2025

    Health Plans Defend Renewed Biogen MS Drug Scheme Suit

    Health plans claiming Biogen Inc. illegally stifled competition for its multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera have said an Illinois federal judge should let their latest complaint proceed to discovery because it fixes earlier pleading deficiencies and better outlines the drugmaker's allegedly anticompetitive scheme.

  • November 26, 2025

    Benefit Funds Claim Drilling Co. Missed $20K In Contributions

    A utility drilling company failed to keep up on its contribution bills owed to its employee benefits plans, resulting in a $20,000 funding shortfall, according to a suit filed by a group of benefit funds and labor associations in Colorado federal court.

  • November 26, 2025

    Ex-Amarin CEO Loses Suit Over Ouster After Proxy Fight

    A New Jersey federal judge on Wednesday tossed a lawsuit against Amarin Pharmaceuticals Inc. from its former CEO over his removal, finding that the allegations did not amount to "good cause" under Swiss law and that no qualifying "change of control" occurred to trigger severance benefits.

  • November 26, 2025

    2nd Circ. Revives Bid For SSA Disability Benefits Over Anxiety

    An administrative law judge must reconsider the Social Security Administration's denial of a former security guard's disability benefits, a split Second Circuit panel found, concluding that the judge needs to back up her determination that the worker's anxiety wouldn't impede his ability to keep a job.

  • November 26, 2025

    Trucking Co. Nabs Early Win In 401(k) Recordkeeping Fee Suit

    A South Carolina federal judge sided with a trucking company in a class action from employee 401(k) participants who claimed their retirement plan was saddled with excessive recordkeeping fees, holding that the class lacked sufficient evidence to back up their fiduciary breach claim. 

  • November 26, 2025

    IBM, Workers End Pension Fight Over Mortality Data

    IBM and a group of workers have agreed to close a proposed class action claiming the technology giant paid retirees less than they were owed in pension payments by using outdated mortality data to calculate their benefits, according to a filing in New York federal court.

  • November 26, 2025

    Ex-Media Exec Launches Counter Fees Bid In Severance Fight

    A former media executive is pushing back on Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP's demand for more than $500,000 in legal fees, arguing that a New Jersey federal court should instead award him more than $600,000 in fees because he is actually the prevailing party in a suit against his former employer over severance pay.

  • November 26, 2025

    6 December Argument Sessions Benefits Attys Should Watch

    Workers who say Prudential mismanaged their retirement savings will ask the Third Circuit to reinstate their class action, while a union pension fund will ask the Eighth Circuit to put General Electric back on the hook for a $230 million in pension withdrawal liability. Here's a look at six upcoming oral argument sessions benefits attorneys should have on their radar.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Mindfulness Meditation Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Mindful meditation enables me to drop the ego, and in helping me to keep sight of what’s important, permits me to learn from the other side and become a reliable counselor, says Roy Wyman at Bass Berry.

  • AI Litigation Tools Can Enhance Case Assessment, Strategy

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    Civil litigators can use artificial intelligence tools to strengthen case assessment and aid in early strategy development, as long as they address the risks and ethical considerations that accompany these uses, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Attys Beware: Generative AI Can Also Hallucinate Metadata

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    In addition to the well-known problem of AI-generated hallucinations in legal documents, AI tools can also hallucinate metadata — threatening the integrity of discovery, the reliability of evidence and the ability to definitively identify the provenance of electronic documents, say attorneys at Law & Forensics.

  • Steps For Healthcare Providers After Cigna ERISA Settlement

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    Following the Cigna class action's settlement, where Employee Retirement Income Security Act violations arose from Cigna's online provider directory advertising providers as in-network who were actually out-of-network, providers should routinely audit their contract status and directory listings, and proactively coordinate with plans and payor partners, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • When Atty Ethics Violations Give Rise To Causes Of Action

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    Though the Model Rules of Professional Conduct make clear that a violation of the rules does not automatically create a cause of action, attorneys should beware of a few scenarios in which they could face lawsuits for ethical lapses, says Brian Faughnan at Faughnan Law.

  • Series

    Practicing Stoicism Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Practicing Stoicism, by applying reason to ignore my emotions and govern my decisions, has enabled me to approach challenging situations in a structured way, ultimately providing advice singularly devoted to a client's interest, says John Baranello at Moses & Singer.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Texas, One Year In

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    A year after the Texas Business Court's first decision, it's clear that Texas didn't just copy Delaware and instead built something uniquely its own, combining specialization with constitutional accountability and creating a model that looks forward without losing touch with the state's democratic and statutory roots, says Chris Bankler at Jackson Walker.

  • What's At Stake In High Court Pension Liability Case

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in M&K Employee Solutions v. Trustees of the IAM National Pension Fund will determine how an employer’s liability for withdrawing from a multiemployer retirement plan is calculated — a narrow but key issue for employer financial planning and collective bargaining, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Educating Your Community

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    Nearly two decades prosecuting scammers and elder fraud taught me that proactively educating the public about the risks they face and the rights they possess is essential to building trust within our communities, empowering otherwise vulnerable citizens and preventing wrongdoers from gaining a foothold, says Roger Handberg at GrayRobinson.

  • 5 Crisis Lawyering Skills For An Age Of Uncertainty

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    As attorneys increasingly face unprecedented and pervasive situations — from prosecutions of law enforcement officials to executive orders targeting law firms — they must develop several essential competencies of effective crisis lawyering, says Ray Brescia at Albany Law School.

  • Opinion

    It's Time For The Judiciary To Fix Its Cybersecurity Problem

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    After recent reports that hackers have once again infiltrated federal courts’ electronic case management systems, the judiciary should strengthen its cybersecurity practices in line with executive branch standards, outlining clear roles and responsibilities for execution, says Ilona Cohen at HackerOne.

  • Series

    Writing Novels Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Writing my debut novel taught me to appreciate the value of critique and to never give up, no matter how long or tedious the journey, providing me with valuable skills that I now emphasize in my practice, says Daniel Buzzetta at BakerHostetler.

  • SDNY OpenAI Order Clarifies Preservation Standards For AI

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    The Southern District of New York’s recent order in the OpenAI copyright infringement litigation, denying discovery of The New York Times' artificial intelligence technology use, clarifies that traditional preservation benchmarks apply to AI content, relieving organizations from using a “keep everything” approach, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

  • Opinion

    High Court, Not A Single Justice, Should Decide On Recusal

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    As public trust in the U.S. Supreme Court continues to decline, the court should adopt a collegial framework in which all justices decide questions of recusal together — a reform that respects both judicial independence and due process for litigants, say Michael Broyde at Emory University and Hayden Hall at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

  • Series

    Traveling Solo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Traveling by myself has taught me to assess risk, understand tone and stay calm in high-pressure situations, which are not only useful life skills, but the foundation of how I support my clients, says Lacey Gutierrez at Group Five Legal.

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