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September 21, 2026
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — An employee welfare benefit plan that offered voluntary benefits including long-term disability (LTD), life insurance and critical illness coverage is the focus of a putative class complaint filed in New York federal court, with plan participants accusing their employer of violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by making choices that resulted in “excessive charges embedded in premiums, diminished Plan and participant assets, and the loss of value and loyalty owed by a fiduciary operating free of self-dealing.”
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September 21, 2026
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Finding no abuse of discretion in a long-term disability (LTD) insurer’s decision to deny a claim under a preexisting conditions exclusion, a North Carolina federal judge entered judgment against a former pilot who had throat and breathing problems.
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September 18, 2026
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 17 affirmed a withdrawal liability ruling that is contrary to decisions by two sister circuits, saying in part that the case involves “complex” statutory provisions “and both sides offer plausible arguments”; the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America had both filed amicus curiae briefs supporting affirmance.
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September 18, 2026
CLEVELAND — Granting judgment on the administrative record against a claimant who has epilepsy, an Ohio federal judge concluded that it was not arbitrary and capricious to deny his claims for benefits under a group long-term disability (LTD) policy and an individual disability income policy.
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September 18, 2026
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Noting that the long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute concerning deferred compensation “was in the top three percent of contentious cases” she had encountered, a Vermont federal judge awarded less than half of the amounts the parties requested for attorney fees, directing a plaintiff who was a breaching co-fiduciary to pay $189,478.92 for the defendants’ attorney fees and the defendants to pay $320,272.39 for the remaining plaintiffs’ attorney fees and costs.
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September 17, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — After upholding denial of the long-term disability (LTD) the claim of an account executive who argued that conditions including tinnitus and anxiety rendered him disabled, a California federal judge entered judgment against the claimant on Sept. 16; reviewing the denial de novo, the judge said in part that it rested on the claimant’s “failure to demonstrate that the diagnoses resulted in a disability that prevented him from working in his Own Occupation.”
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September 17, 2026
PORTLAND, Ore. — On de novo review, an Oregon federal magistrate judge ruled that a claimant diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s disease (YOPD) is entitled to have her long-term disability (LTD) benefits reinstated under the plan’s “any gainful occupation” definition of disability because the evidence demonstrates that she “suffers from a chronic, degenerative condition that results in cognitive impairments and fatigue which prevent plaintiff from attending work on a reliable and consistent basis, and, when at work, concentrating on her duties.”
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September 16, 2026
BOSTON — In a memorandum and order citing the prejudice a long-term disability (LTD) claimant suffered and the LTD plan administrator’s “lack of concern for its” statutory obligations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a Massachusetts federal judge decided that the claimant is entitled to a “modest” penalty of $5,000 because the administrator provided plan documents only 230 days after the first of the claimant’s many requests.
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September 16, 2026
SALT LAKE CITY — On de novo review, a Utah federal judge ruled that a long-term disability (LTD) insurer must reconsider whether a claimant qualifies for benefits under an any-occupation definition of disability because it relied on an employability analysis report that was based on a medical case manager review that “missed all evidence of mental health treatment and care in the record.”
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September 15, 2026
TAMPA, Fla. — A claimant who unsuccessfully challenged termination of her long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an any-occupation definition of disability filed a Sept. 14 notice in Florida federal court that she is taking the case to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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September 09, 2026
DENVER — Reversing the denial of a claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a Colorado federal judge said that “none of the evidence” the insurer relied on compared the claimant’s “cognitive functioning to the actual requirements of his position as a software engineer, or his ability to perform those functions on a continuous work schedule” and therefore the decision “is not founded on substantial evidence” and must go back to the insurer “for further consideration.”
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September 09, 2026
ATLANTA — Affirming summary judgment for an insurer that terminated a claimant’s long-term disability (LTD) benefits, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in an unpublished opinion that the insurer needed the documents to evaluate whether the claimant “satisfied the Test of Disability, so his refusal to provide them justified termination under the Plan.”
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September 09, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Under a stipulation a District of Columbia federal judge granted in a text-only docket entry, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) has until Sept. 16 to respond to a preliminary injunction request from 22 terminated multiemployer pension plans that allege that the agency is using an improper “waitlist scheme” to prevent them and their “25,000 participants and beneficiaries” from claiming special financial assistance (SFA) funding “that is likely to total in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
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September 08, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Oral argument before the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is scheduled for Sept. 24 in a case that group health plans and related entities filed against a third-party administrator (TPA), and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has filed an amicus curiae brief urging the appellate court to “reaffirm that surcharge is an equitable remedy in suits brought under” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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September 08, 2026
NEW YORK — New York municipalities suing pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) over their alleged role in the opioid epidemic cannot prevent federal officer removal by disclaiming claims arising from the PBMs’ work for federal clients, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in a case presenting an issue of first impression, reversing orders by district courts to remand the cases to state court.
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September 04, 2026
DENVER — Saying there is a lack of “controlling authority to guide the Court’s analysis,” a Colorado federal judge found that retirees lacked standing to bring a putative class case that is part of a wave of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges; he therefore granted dismissal without prejudice of all the claims in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case.
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September 04, 2026
The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for Sept. 16 in the most advanced appeal arising from a wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to tobacco surcharges, and at least five similar appeals are under way.
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September 03, 2026
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Granting a trade association’s motion for a preliminary injunction, an Illinois federal judge enjoined the Illinois Department of Insurance from enforcing a state law’s reporting requirements against the association’s members that are pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) serving health plans sponsored by employers and unions that are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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September 02, 2026
ST. LOUIS — Saying in part that there was no clear error in the lower court’s refusal to credit a treating physician’s attempt to “walk back” his opinions that the claimant was capable of sedentary work, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an “any gainful occupation” definition of disability.
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September 02, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Applying the California doctrine of substantial compliance in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case focused on an online effort to make a pension benefit election and designate a beneficiary, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed dismissal of one benefits claim and remanded for further proceedings; however, in a separate unpublished memorandum disposition, the appellate panel affirmed dismissal of two other claims.
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September 01, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — Reviving a class action focused on the management of a multiemployer plan that used a single investment pool, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in an unpublished memorandum that the trial court “did not have the benefit of” a decision in which the appellate court subsequently addressed how to assess claims concerning the duty of prudence under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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September 01, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Urging the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a certiorari petition filed by participants in “top hat” deferred compensation and retirement plans, the U.S. government says in an Aug. 31 amicus curiae brief that the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “erred in its analysis of surcharge” but “this case’s idiosyncratic factual context makes it an unsuitable vehicle for clarifying the propriety of surcharge relief” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act; simultaneously, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) asked the Fifth Circuit for permission to file a late amicus brief in a separate ERISA case arguing that “surcharge is a form of ‘appropriate equitable relief’ that may be awarded for claims brought against fiduciaries for breaches of fiduciary duties.”
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August 31, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Denying health insurers’ petition for rehearing but granting what it construed as hospitals’ request to modify a footnote, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an amended nonprecedential opinion partly reviving an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit in which the hospitals allege that they were underpaid by at least $100 million for claims for out-of-network reimbursement.
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August 31, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Skirting “thorny choice-of-law issues” but expressing doubt that a plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “can tell its insured that no state law applies to him,” the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an unpublished opinion affirming denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits on the grounds that the claimant “was not totally disabled” even under de novo review.
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August 28, 2026
ATLANTA — Issuing an unpublished Aug. 27 opinion affirming a ruling against a pro se claimant whose long-term disability (LTD) benefits were terminated under an any-occupation definition of disability, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said it was reasonable for the insurer “to rely on the findings of four medical professionals, in conjunction with the independent medical examination and the two vocational assessments, to find that [she] no longer met the definition of disabled under the policy because she could perform sedentary jobs in her area.”