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December 19, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — In a decision that included a partial dissent, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 18 affirmed holdings contrary to the positions of health plans’ third-party administrator (TPA), ruling that the threshold question of arbitrability had not been “clearly and unmistakably delegated to an arbitrator” and that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims for money damages are equitable rather than legal.
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December 19, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — Concluding that favorable factual findings are “a moral victory . . . insufficient to justify an award of attorney’s fees” and that the claimant here ultimately obtained no legal relief, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 18 reversed an award of more than $1.25 million to a former National Football League player who sued for a higher level of disability benefits than he was awarded, prevailed after a bench trial and then saw that favorable ruling reversed in a previous appeal.
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December 18, 2025
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — An Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit filed by a pro se former medical center employee who said he was wrongly denied long-term disability (LTD) benefits after long COVID and other issues including depression and anxiety rendered him unable to work has been dismissed by a Virginia federal judge, who ruled that the only claim fails because the center’s LTD plan is a governmental one exempt from ERISA.
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December 17, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arguing in part that the decision at issue “will likely result in the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to terminated pension plans that Congress intentionally excluded from” a special financial assistance (SFA) program, the U.S. solicitor general filed a certiorari petition on behalf of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) urging the U.S. Supreme Court to “grant review without awaiting the development of a circuit conflict.”
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December 17, 2025
ATLANTA — Saying, “No circuit has reached a contrary conclusion,” the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals became the seventh circuit court to rule that an arbitration provision is unenforceable because it barred “effective vindication” of statutory Employee Retirement Income Security Act rights; the putative class action at hand concerns an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and an advocacy organization filed October 2024 amicus curiae briefs supporting application of the effective vindication doctrine.
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December 17, 2025
PITTSBURGH — Among other things, a nurse who has been diagnosed with a chronic pain condition and is challenging termination of her long-term disability (LTD) benefits has sued seeking a declaration that, at a claimant’s request, an LTD insurer “has an obligation to provide information in its claim files that is relevant to a participant’s benefit claim regardless of whether an adverse decision has been made.”
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December 16, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The trust administrator for “top hat” deferred compensation and retirement plans on Dec. 15 waived its right to respond to a certiorari petition in which plan participants argue that they were wrongly left without relief from federal and state law because the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “adopted an exceedingly narrow and historically unmoored understanding of equitable relief” while simultaneously embracing “an all-too-broad understanding of preemption.”
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December 15, 2025
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge on Dec. 12 gave final approval to a claims-made class settlement over proton beam therapy (PBT or PBRT) that is capped at $6.75 million but at last report would result in distributions of less than $1.65 million because just 22 claims were submitted; in a different order issued the same day, the judge granted a separate $2 million for class counsel.
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December 15, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 15 denied a certiorari petition in which insurers and health plan administrators challenged a Nevada Supreme Court ruling that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act does not preempt state law claims concerning out-of-network (OON) care, which they argued conflicts with the conclusion of “[e]very federal appellate court to have considered the issue.”
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December 15, 2025
PHOENIX — Saying that a claim that an employer “breached its fiduciary duty by failing to inform” a disability claimant “of the consequences to his benefits of becoming a part-time employee . . . is not a disguised claim for benefits even if it results in a monetary award,” an Arizona federal judge declined to grant the employer summary judgment for failure to exhaust administrative remedies as to that claim.
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December 15, 2025
NEW YORK — Standard of review is the sole issue in an appeal where the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral argument on Jan. 12 regarding a denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits appeal that was upheld under the arbitrary and capricious review standard in the trial court; the parties dispute whether the insurer had discretionary authority and whether it complied with claim regulations.
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December 15, 2025
MIAMI — Finding that it was not arbitrary and capricious for the claim administrator of a long-term disability (LTD) plan to determine that a former software engineer “with a history of chronic back pain and lumbar degenerative disease” was not disabled under an “any occupation” definition, a Florida federal judge upheld termination of the benefit.
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December 12, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Dec. 11, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order seeking to protect investors and pensions from politicized advice from foreign-owned proxy advisers.
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December 11, 2025
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two days after the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a pro se litigant’s petitions for writs of mandamus in a dispute involving long-term disability (LTD) benefits, an Ohio federal judge on Dec. 10 issued an amended ruling designating him a vexatious litigant, dismissing his case without prejudice and imposing sanctions including a $1,500 penalty and a three-part filing restriction, highlighting “his repeated failure to appear” and “his (apparently ongoing) use of AI resulting in fabricated citations.”
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December 11, 2025
TAMPA, Fla. — Saying that the “parties agree to limit the scope of discovery to the issues identified in” Cerrito v. Liberty Life Assurance Co., a Florida federal magistrate judge granted a long-term disability (LTD) claimant’s request for discovery outside the administrative record in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit.
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December 10, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saying that now is the time for the U.S. Supreme Court to address a question it has thrice declined to consider — and acknowledging that the position it now takes represents a change from its historical one — the U.S. government on Dec. 9 filed an amicus curiae brief urging the high court to grant a certiorari petition that asks whether “burden-shifting applies to the element of causation under” part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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December 10, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Dec. 9 amicus curiae brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a certiorari petition, the U.S. government opines that there were two significant errors in the challenged decision concerning the role benchmarks play in pleading Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims; the 2-1 ruling by a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel revived a putative class action over a passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs).
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December 10, 2025
SAN FRANCISCO — Finding that “the reversal of the determination of denial and the remand for consideration with a vocational analysis constitutes a sufficient degree of success to warrant attorney’s fees” in a case challenging termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an any-occupation standard, a California federal magistrate judge awarded just half of the nearly $185,000 requested for attorney fees and declined to amend the judgment to award the benefits pending the determination on remand.
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December 09, 2025
PASADENA, Calif. — Citing a May 2024 decision, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an unpublished memorandum disposition upholding dismissal of California state law claims against a health insurance administrator on the grounds that the claims were preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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December 09, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished per curiam order, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment against a former grocery worker who alleged that her employment and benefits were improperly terminated to keep her from receiving benefits under a work injury plan and a return-to-work program that were governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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December 09, 2025
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge on Dec. 8 granted preliminary approval of a settlement under which Wells Fargo & Co. would pay $84 million to resolve a class action against it and two other defendants; the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit challenges how Wells Fargo used dividends of its preferred stock held in its 401(k)’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fund.
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December 08, 2025
RICHMOND, Va. — On the heels of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s appellant brief in its interlocutory appeal of a ruling that retirees had standing to file a putative class lawsuit that is part of a much-watched string of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Dec. 5 asked the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for extra time to decide whether to file an amicus curiae brief; among other things, the retirees generally allege that the use of offshore captive reinsurers makes the insurers that are responsible to pay annuities because of the PRTs more likely to fall short of their obligations.
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December 05, 2025
BOSTON — A claimant who unsuccessfully challenged a determination that she wasn’t entitled to long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an any-occupation standard despite being approved for Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) has dropped her appeal in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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December 05, 2025
ATLANTA — Saying in an unpublished per curiam opinion that the multiple physician reviews that a long-term disability (LTD) insurer obtained and the claimant’s “social media activity” and medical records constituted substantial evidence for terminating benefits under a group insurance policy’s any-occupation definition of disability, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for the insurer.
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December 05, 2025
PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear Dec. 9 oral argument in an appeal where retirement plan participants who filed an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over proprietary target date funds (TDFs) lost on all counts following a bench trial; among other things, the participants seek vacatur of an order taxing them with nearly $94,000 in costs.