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Benefits
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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.
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March 14, 2024
NFL Had Ample Cause To Deny Disability Benefits, Court Says
A Texas federal judge has tossed a former NFL player's suit against the league for denying him permanent disability benefits, following the recommendation from a magistrate judge who determined that, although injuries ultimately ended his football career, eight different doctors had said he was capable of working.
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March 14, 2024
NBA Ref Fired Over COVID Vax Refusal Can Get Benefits
A Manhattan federal court ruled that an NBA referee who was fired for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons can get his retirement benefits, rejecting the league's contention that the prospect of his reemployment made him ineligible.
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March 14, 2024
Ex-Mass. Pol Says Federalism Bars COVID Fraud Cases
A former Massachusetts state senator charged with collecting CARES Act-funded unemployment benefits while being paid for consulting work said in a motion filed Thursday that the 10th Amendment prohibits the federal government from prosecuting him for actions that occurred at the state level.
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March 14, 2024
Lockheed Offloaded Pensions In Risky Deal, Retirees Say
A group of retirees claim aerospace defense company Lockheed Martin committed an "egregious act of disloyalty" when it passed off $9 billion in pension responsibilities for 31,000 beneficiaries to a risky annuity provider, according to a suit filed in Maryland federal court.
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March 13, 2024
9th Circ. Unsure If Abortion Pill Suit Harms Red States
Two Ninth Circuit judges on Wednesday challenged Idaho and other Republican-led states' bid to intervene in Washington's lawsuit seeking to expand access to the abortion pill mifepristone, asking if the states could back up their claims of economic harm.
Expert Analysis
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Some Client Speculations On AI And The Law Firm Biz Model
Generative artificial intelligence technologies will put pressure on the business of law as it is structured currently, but clients may end up with more price certainty for legal services, and lawyers may spend more time being lawyers, says Jonathan Cole at Melody Capital.
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Revenue Sharing Argument Might Save Barrick In 401(k) Case
During recent oral arguments before the Tenth Circuit, Barrick Gold presented revenue sharing as an obvious alternative explanation for the selection of higher-cost share classes in its ex-workers’ 401(k) plan, establishing that dismissal of the case would be consistent with U.S. Supreme Court pleading standard precedent, say Emily Costin and Blake Crohan at Alston & Bird.
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Now More Than Ever, Fiduciaries Must Revisit ERISA Origins
Given increasing political pressures, including legislation on ESG investing, fiduciaries should have a firm grasp on the historical foundations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, especially its allocation and delegation provision — the act's most important fiduciary duty shield, says Jeff Mamorsky, a Cohen & Buckmann partner who helped draft the statute.
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A Lawyer's Guide To Approaching Digital Assets In Discovery
The booming growth of cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens has made digital assets relevant in many legal disputes but also poses several challenges for discovery, so lawyers must garner an understanding of the technology behind these assets, the way they function, and how they're held, says Brett Sager at Ehrenstein Sager.
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Opinion
High Court's Ethics Statement Places Justices Above The Law
The U.S. Supreme Court justices' disappointing statement on the court's ethics principles and practices reveals that not only are they satisfied with a status quo in which they are bound by fewer ethics rules than other federal judges, but also that they've twisted the few rules that do apply to them, says David Janovsky at the Project on Government Oversight.
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Opinion
Time For Law Schools To Rethink Unsung Role Of Adjuncts
As law schools prepare for the fall 2023 semester, administrators should reevaluate the role of the underappreciated, indispensable adjunct, and consider 16 concrete actions to improve the adjuncts' teaching experience, overall happiness and feeling of belonging, say T. Markus Funk at Perkins Coie, Andrew Boutros at Dechert and Eugene Volokh at UCLA.
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4th Circ. Ruling Reveals 2 Layoff Pitfalls To Avoid
The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Messer v. Bristol Compressors serves as a reminder that employers have a continuing obligation to keep employees informed about mass layoffs, and that employees do not need to show prejudice to succeed on Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act claims, say Kevin White and Steven DiBeneditto at Hunton.
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Opinion
Duty To Oversee ESG Risks Would Erode Biz Judgment Rule
Imposing a duty to oversee ESG business risks on directors and officers is the exact kind of second-guessing that the business judgment rule is supposed to protect against, and it could expose corporate leaders to ruinous liability and disincentivize serving on public company boards, say Stephen Leitzell and Richard Horvath at Dechert.
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Tips For In-House Legal Leaders In A Challenging Economy
Amid today's economic and geopolitical uncertainty, in-house legal teams are running lean and facing increased scrutiny and unique issues, but can step up and find innovative ways to manage outcomes and capitalize on good business opportunities, says Tim Parilla at LinkSquares.
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How Cities Can Tackle Post-Pandemic Budgeting Dilemmas
Due to increasing office vacancies around the country, cities may consider politically unpopular actions to avoid bankruptcy, but they could also look to the capital markets to ride out the current real estate crisis and achieve debt service savings to help balance their budgets, say attorneys at Cadwalader.
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What Associates Need To Know Before Switching Law Firms
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
The days of staying at the same firm for the duration of one's career are mostly a thing of the past as lateral moves by lawyers are commonplace, but there are several obstacles that associates should consider before making a move, say attorneys at HWG.
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A Case For Sharing Mediation Statements With Counterparties
In light of a potential growing mediation trend of only submitting statements to the mediator, litigants should think critically about the pros and cons of exchanging statements with opposing parties as it could boost the chances of reaching a settlement, says Arthur Eidelhoch at Eidelhoch Mediation.
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Challenging Standing In Antitrust Class Actions: Injury-In-Fact
As demonstrated in recent cases, the classic injury-in-fact requirement for Article III standing claimed in most antitrust suits is economic harm — and while concrete harm satisfies the requirement, litigants may still be able to challenge whether economic injury has occurred, say Michael Hamburger and Holly Tao at White & Case.
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Calif. Independent Contractor Lessons From Grubhub Suit
California courts have been creating little in the way of clarity when it comes to the employment status of gig workers — and a recent federal court decision in Lawson v. Grubhub illustrates how status may change with the winds of litigation, offering four takeaways for businesses that rely on delivery drivers, say Esra Hudson and Marah Bragdon at Manatt.
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Preparing For Legal Scrutiny Of Data Retention Policies
Two recent cases involving Google and Meta should serve as a call to action for companies to ensure their data retention policies are updated and properly implemented to the degree of being able to withstand judicial scrutiny, especially as more data is generated by emerging technologies, say Jack Kallus and Labeed Choudhry at Kaufman Dolowich.