One of the more fascinating developments in group health plan law has been the growth of antitrust claims by group health plans against drug manufactures who allegedly agree to delay the production of generic drugs once a patent has expired. A federal judge in California...
Early reports suggested that a pension fund for Kentucky teachers lost approximately $13 million invested in Sberbank, one of Russia’s largest banks. The pension plan quickly refuted these stories, reporting that the plan sold its interests on Feb. 23, the day before Russia invaded Ukraine...
Just this month, the Supreme Court issued its much anticipated decision in Northwestern University, the first time the Court has been called upon to examine a lawsuit alleging that a 401(k) plan’s investment and fees were mismanaged. Although a narrow decision, the case was a...
Since the first round of cases were filed in 2006, plaintiffs’ counsel have raised hundreds of lawsuits challenging the prudence of fees and investments in 401(k) plans. One of the critical issues in those cases is what needs to be included in a complaint to...
Lawsuits by out-of-network medical providers against ERISA plans and their third party administrators rank as one of the most common ERISA-type cases being raised these days. In these cases, out-of-network medical providers purport to provide services to patients—often substance use or mental health treatments—and then...
Fiduciaries are not guarantors of an investment’s success. Rather, all they are asked to do is be diligent, prudent, and loyal in managing an investment’s success—the ultimate success or failure of the investment does not determine whether a fiduciary has properly complied with their duties. ...
Regular followers of ERISA litigation know that the so-called 401(k)/403(b) “fee” cases have dominated the ERISA litigation space ever since the first tranche was filed in 2006. Literally hundreds of cases have been filed against defined contribution plan fiduciaries, resulting in the payment of billions...
Vanilla ERISA claims seeking plan benefits may well be the most common lawsuit encountered by federal judges. Even so, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not expressly contemplate how these ERISA claims for benefits—with their unique limits on discovery and discretionary standard of review...
The United States Supreme Court’s constitutional standing decision in Thole continues to reverberate throughout ERISA litigation. In Scott v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc., the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota dismissed challenges to United’s cross-plan offsetting practices because the plaintiffs, plan participants, themselves...
In Negron v. Cigna Health and Life Ins., the Plaintiffs alleged that CIGNA misinterpreted their standardized group health plans and caused pharmacies to charge participants with higher copays than was proper. Plaintiffs sought to certify a class of all participants in the various group health...
Under ERISA, group health plans are legal entities that can sue and be sued. Often overlooked, these plans have the ability to raise lawsuits under not only ERISA, but state law, antitrust, and other legal theories. On May 11, the United States District Court for...
After a long, tortured procedural history, Principal Life Insurance Co. won a court trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. The case was initially dismissed in an early procedural motion, but then revived by the Eighth Circuit Court of...
ERISA does not preempt everything, as illustrated by a recent case decided by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. There, Wilmington Trust was forced to settle an ERISA case after a Court found that it breached its ERISA fiduciary...
ESOPs and so-called “company stock funds” are designed to hold the stock of the sponsoring employer. They are designed by their nature to be undiversified, and ERISA exempts them from any contrary obligation. Still, ERISA’s fiduciary duties still apply to those who administer and manage...
ERISA Section 102 requires employers to provide accurate and comprehensive information about plan benefits to participants through a summary plan description (and its updates). A group of participants in Detroit Edison’s defined benefit plan sued alleging that the employer failed to accurately describe the consequences...
Courts have increasingly been asked to determine whether arbitration agreements executed by employees apply to claims under ERISA. In Cooper v. DST Systems, Inc., the Second Circuit just held that an employer’s breach of fiduciary duty claims alleging poor management of a 401(k) Plan’s assets...
Giant 401(k) service providers like Fidelity have an array of products and fees. Under ERISA’s fiduciary standards, this network of fees and costs have historically given rise to allegations that Fidelity was a fiduciary. Historically, providers like Fidelity have often—but not always—been able to defeat...
Suits alleging that defined benefit plan sponsors failed to update mortality tables used to determine whether alternative plan benefit options are the “actuarial equivalent” of the single life benefit have been proceeding rapidly. Just days ago, one of the targets of these actuarial equivalence lawsuits...
Andrew HollyAndrew represents clients in a wide range of complex civil matters.
Nick BullardNick is a trial partner in Dorsey’s office in Minneapolis. ...
Tim ArendsChair of the Benefits and Compensation practice group, Tim devot...
Shannon BjorklundShannon provides advice and litigation assistance to companies...
Tim GoodmanTim Goodman works with employers on medical plans, retirement pl...
Alan IversonAlan is a litigator in Dorsey’s trial group with a focus on cli...
Stephen P. LuckeSteve represents businesses, employers, insurers, and fiduciarie...
Marianne O'BaraMarianne works regularly with numerous non-U.S. companies and t...
Kirsten SchubertKirsten helps clients large and small navigate all aspects of com...
Michael VovesEmployee Benefits, Minneapolis
