A rapidly growing line of ERISA cases seeks to impose fiduciary standards of conduct—developed by courts largely in the retirement plan context—to health plan design choices. The most recent, Barbich et al. v. Northwestern University et al., No. 1:25-cv-06849 (N.D. Ill.) filed on June 20, 2025, involves a new and potentially disruptive twist: plaintiffs
On June 30, 2025, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in M&K Employee Solutions, LLC et al. v. Trustees of the IAM Nat’l Pension Fund to address whether the requirement under ERISA section 4211 that multiemployer pension plans compute withdrawal liability based on the plan’s unfunded vested benefits “as of the end” of the plan year
On March 28, 2025, two neighboring district courts issued sharply contrasting decisions on constitutional standing in lawsuits challenging pension risk transfers under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). The United States District Court for the District of Columbia, in Camire et al. v. Alcoa USA Corp. (“Alcoa Decision”)
In Hansen v. Laboratory Corporation of America, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 193350 (E.D. Wis. 2024), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin rejected a challenge to the authority of the Department of Labor (DOL) to promulgate a “payroll practice” exemption to the definition of plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security
On January 17, 2025, the ERISA Industry Committee (“ERIC”) filed a lawsuit, The ERISA Industry Committee v. United States Department of Health and Human Services et al. challenging the final Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (“MHPAEA”) rule published by the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services (the “Departments”) in
In a closely watched ERISA case, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado has issued an order affirming the Magistrate Judge’s ruling in Harrison v. Envision Management Holding, Inc. Board of Directors et al (Case No. 21-cv-00304), concerning the discoverability of Department of Labor (“DOL”) interview reports plaintiffs had obtained under a
THE BENEFIT TO AN EMPLOYER OF INCLUDING BOTH A RELEASE AND A COVENANT NOT TO SUE IN A SEPARATION OR SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT WITH AN EMPLOYEE
ERISA class actions have been plaguing corporate America for more than a decade. There is no universally accepted application of the pleading standards for ERISA fee and performance cases, which
A recently filed lawsuit is a good reminder that self-insured health plan fiduciaries have a fiduciary duty to ensure that their health plans are being administered according to the plan’s terms and in compliance with law, while defraying the reasonable expenses of administering the plan. In discharging this responsibility, plan fiduciaries must oversee any party
Earlier this year, current and former participants of two ERISA-governed health plans filed complaints alleging the same novel legal theory: that plan fiduciaries violated ERISA by mismanaging the plan’s prescription drug benefits. In both complaints, plaintiffs alleged that the mismanagement was caused in part by the plans paying excessive and unreasonable fees to their respective
Potentially signaling a new wave of litigation, AT&T Inc. and AT&T Services, Inc. (AT&T) were hit with a class-action lawsuit on March 11, 2024 filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts relating to the 2023 transfer of $8 billion of their pension liabilities – covering approximately 96,000 participants in AT&T’s