The scope of pre-emption of state laws under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is so broad that it generally precludes recovery of any damages or remedies beyond the limited remedies enumerated in 29 U.S.C. Section 1132(a). Thus, the availability of any recompense in a denial of benefits case beyond the benefits claimed, plus […]
The ERISA statute contains a provision that permits a large universe of potential claimants to seek “appropriate equitable relief.” 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1132(a)(3). Over a series of rulings the Supreme Court has wrestled with the meaning of that term. Historically, courts of equity were limited in the remedies they could provide litigants who came before […]
Although the ERISA law generally preempts state law causes of action that relate to claims for employee benefits, a recent federal court ruling from California Dale v. Reed Group, Ltd., 2015 WL 6954915 (N.D. Cal. November 10, 2015), permitted an exception to that general rule. Ed Dale, an employee of Intel Corporation who became disabled, […]
In most situations, litigants must sue and be sued using their real names, even in sensitive matters. A recent ruling, however, catalogued circumstances under which a litigant may bring suit under a pseudonym. In Doe v. Standard Ins. Co., 2015 WL 5778566 (D. Maine October 2, 2015), the court stated the general rule, but then […]
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act is so pervasive in its scope that it broadly pre-empts all state laws that relate to employee benefit plans. However, ERISA pre-emption is extremely complex, and it has provoked more than a dozen Supreme Court cases that have examined the breadth of ERISA pre-emption in a number of ways. […]
Although lawsuits challenging employee benefit denials under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) are brought as “civil actions” in accordance with the United States Code, the manner in which such cases are adjudicated deviates from the norm according to a recent article authored by Mark DeBofsky, “A Critical Appraisal of the Current State of […]