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Benefits
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May 22, 2025
EV Carmaker Lucid Gets Inflated Biz Suit Trimmed, Again
A California federal judge on Thursday again trimmed a proposed investor class action that alleges electric carmaker Lucid made misleading production forecasts, finding that the latest complaint still doesn't adequately allege the defendants knew some of the challenged statements were false when they were issued.
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May 22, 2025
MLB Plan Says Widow's 7-Week Marriage Bars Pension
Major League Baseball's pension plan asked a Florida federal judge to toss a request for surviving spouse benefits filed by a woman who married retired Cincinnati Reds pitcher Tom Browning seven weeks before he died, saying the length of the marriage disqualifies her from collecting the benefits.
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May 22, 2025
Alaska Airlines Grilled In Wash. COVID Workers' Comp Case
Members of Washington's highest court cast doubt Thursday about Alaska Airlines' stance in a flight attendant's COVID-19 workers' compensation case, with several justices seemingly frustrated by the employer's attempt to draw a line between covered occupational disease and sickness that develops during job-related travel.
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May 22, 2025
Federal Gov't Backs States' BlackRock Coal Investments Suit
The federal government on Thursday threw its support behind a case from Texas and several other states that accuses investment groups including BlackRock Inc. of using their energy holdings to drive up coal prices under the guise of environmental concerns.
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May 22, 2025
NJ Golf Clubs Failed To Pay Caddies Wages, OT, Suits Claim
A Bronx man has filed proposed class actions in New Jersey state court against two Garden State country clubs accusing them of failing to pay caddies minimum wage or overtime.
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May 22, 2025
9th Circ. Says Ex-Intel Worker's ERISA Suit Short On Specifics
The Ninth Circuit declined Thursday to reinstate a former Intel worker's suit claiming the company pushed employees' retirement savings into hedge and private equity funds that performed worse than traditional assets, ruling he failed to show that any investment vehicles with similar risk-mitigation strategies pulled better returns.
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May 21, 2025
FTC Urges 8th Circ. Not To Pause In-House PBM Case
The Eighth Circuit should once again say no to a request to pause the Federal Trade Commission's in-house case accusing three pharmacy benefit managers of hiking up the price of insulin to line their own pockets, the agency has told the appellate court.
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May 21, 2025
House Panel Advances Bills Easing Securities, Banking Regs
The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee this week approved 25 bills largely aimed at reducing capital markets and banking regulations, moving the deregulatory proposals forward for consideration by the full House.
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May 21, 2025
6th Circ. Revives Yacht Co.'s ERISA Health Fee Claims
The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday revived a Michigan yacht company's federal benefits lawsuit against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, holding that a lower court wrongly tossed allegations that excessive healthcare fees breached fiduciary duties and caused prohibited transactions.
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May 21, 2025
Monster Beverage Fails In Bid To Nix Workers' 401(k) Fee Suit
Monster Beverage can't escape a proposed class action alleging it allowed its employee 401(k) plan to be saddled with unreasonable recordkeeping costs and took excessive amounts from the plan to pad an Employee Retirement Income Security Act benefit account to treat it as a slush fund, a California federal judge has ruled.聽
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May 21, 2025
Court Won't Revive Mental Health Class Suit Against Fla. Blue
A Florida appeals court Wednesday declined to revive a proposed class suit by state employees enrolled in a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida healthcare plan alleging the insurer designed a claims process to obstruct approval and payment of claims for mental health care.
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May 21, 2025
Energy Co. Beats Retiree's Suit Over Pension Calculations
A Florida federal judge tossed a retiree's suit claiming an energy company violated federal benefits law by failing to warn pension plan members that rising interest rates would reduce their lump sum payments, ruling the ex-worker is improperly asking the business to act as an advisor, not a fiduciary.
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May 21, 2025
Food Distribution Co. Must Face Tobacco Surcharge Suit
Food distributor Performance Food Group must face a proposed class action claiming it unlawfully overcharged tobacco users hundreds of dollars for health benefits, with a Virginia federal judge ruling workers sufficiently alleged the company breached its responsibilities under federal benefits law.
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May 20, 2025
Trump Admin Rationale For HHS Firings Challenged By Judge
A Rhode Island federal judge expressed skepticism Tuesday about the Trump administration's assertion that mass firings at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were lawful and intended to improve national health, saying during a preliminary injunction hearing that nothing in the record demonstrates "thoughtful work" behind these decisions.
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May 20, 2025
Cigna Accused Of Mismanaging Retirement Plan Funds
Cigna has been unlawfully putting its own interests above those of a 401(k) plan's participants by using forfeited plan funds to reduce company contributions, despite experiencing "significant financial performance," a putative class action filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania federal court alleges.
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May 20, 2025
4th Circ. Won't Revive Md. Retirees' Drug Benefits Case
The Fourth Circuit backed Maryland's defeat of a proposed class action alleging it broke promises made to retirees when it transitioned their prescription drug benefits to Medicare Part D, saying Tuesday that a lower court was right to toss the case.
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May 20, 2025
J&J Workers Reassert Drug Costs Resulted In Concrete Harm
Johnson & Johnson workers are urging a New Jersey federal court to maintain their proposed class claims that the company botched the management of prescription drug costs in its employee healthcare plan by allowing excessive pharmacy costs, asserting that company mismanagement resulted in concrete harm.
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May 20, 2025
Ex-Worker Accuses TIAA Of Mismanaging 401(k) Plans
An ex-worker聽accused聽the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America of violating聽federal benefits law by keeping costly and underperforming fund offerings in its two employee 401(k) retirement plans, in a proposed class action lodged Tuesday in New York federal court.
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May 20, 2025
Awardco Nabs $1B Valuation After $165M Equity Infusion
Goodwin Procter LLP-led Awardco, an employee rewards and recognition software company, announced Tuesday it hit a $1 billion valuation after scoring a $165 million minority investment from two private equity firms.聽
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May 20, 2025
Indirect Chicken Buyers' Attys Seek Additional $12M In Fees
Attorneys for commercial and institutional indirect purchaser plaintiffs in sprawling antitrust litigation against the nation's top poultry producers asked an Illinois federal judge Monday to approve roughly $12 million in additional attorney fees after they secured more than $41 million in additional deals since a prior fee motion.
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May 20, 2025
Nursing Homes Facing 'Corporate Death Penalty' Owe $15.4M
The companies behind two Pittsburgh-area nursing homes convicted of falsifying staffing records were ordered Tuesday to pay a total of $15.35 million in restitution to the federal government, though the corporations' attorney told the judge that they had already received a "corporate death penalty" for their conviction.
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May 20, 2025
Veterans Seek Certification For VA Consultant Fee Claims
A proposed class of veterans urged a North Carolina federal judge to certify their claims against a consulting firm they allege charged them millions in illegal fees, arguing that the individual claims of thousands all hinge on a single statutory interpretation.
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May 19, 2025
Vanguard $40M Deal Rejected In Investors' Tax Fight
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Monday rejected a $40 million proposed settlement between Vanguard and investors, blocking the investors' attorneys from netting $13 million in fees and embracing the objections of one investor who called out the deal 鈥 meant to compensate for surprise tax bills 鈥 as worthless.聽
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May 19, 2025
Wells Fargo's 9th Circ. Cert. Challenge Gains SIFMA Backing
A top securities industry group has voiced its support of Wells Fargo's appeal of class certification in an investor dispute alleging the bank conducted "sham" interviews to meet diversity quotas, which harmed the bank's stock price when the truth came to light.
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May 19, 2025
Electric, Nuclear Valve Co. Escape Pension Dispute
A federally owned electric company and a contractor were not required to make pension fund contributions to a plumbers and steamfitters union because the contracted valve work was an exempt specialty contract, a Tennessee federal judge ruled in a lawsuit Monday.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.
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Plan Sponsors Must Prep For New Mental Health, Drug Rules
To comply with newly published health insurance rules requiring parity between access to mental health and substance use services compared to medical and surgical services, employers with self-insured plans will need to update third-party administrator agreements and collect data, among other compliance steps, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.
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How Cos. Can Protect Supply Chains During The Port Strike
With dock workers at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts launching a strike that will likely cause severe supply chain disruptions, there are several steps exporters and importers can take to protect their businesses and mitigate increased costs, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.
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Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession
About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals 鈥 and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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FTC Focus: How Scrutiny Of PBMs And Insulin May Play Out
Should Express Scripts' recent judicial challenge to the Federal Trade Commission succeed, any new targets could add litigation and choice of forum to their playbooks, and potential FTC court action on insulin could be forced to parallel venues as the issues between the commission and PBMs evolve, say attorneys at Proskauer.
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Opinion
AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys
The thing that鈥檚 so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what鈥檚 most scary about it 鈥 its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys鈥 chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
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Series
Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.
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SEC Settlement Holds Important Pay-To-Play Lessons
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission鈥檚 recent fine of an investment adviser, whose new hire made a campaign contribution within a crucial lookback period, is a seasonable reminder for public fund managers to ensure their processes thoroughly screen all associates for even minor violations of the SEC鈥檚 strict pay-to-play rule, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners
Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners 鈥 though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics
Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.
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It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers
Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional 鈥渢rusted adviser鈥 paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient 鈥 they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.
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Basics Of Collective Bargaining Law In Principle And Practice
Excerpt from
Rebecca Bernhard and Jennifer Service at Barnes & Thornburg discuss the nuts and bolts of what the National Labor Relations Act requires of employers during collective bargaining, and translate these obligations into practical steps that will help companies prepare for, and succeed during, the negotiation process.
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Missouri Injunction A Setback For State Anti-ESG Rules
A Missouri federal court鈥檚 recent order enjoining the state鈥檚 anti-ESG rules comes amid actions by state legislatures to revise or invalidate similar legislation imposing disclosure and consent requirements around environmental, social and governance聽investing, and could be a blueprint for future challenges, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.
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How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations
Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.
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Employers Should Not Neglect Paid Military Leave Compliance
An August decision from the Ninth Circuit and the settlement of a long-running class action, both examining paid leave requirements under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, are part of a nationwide trend that should prompt employers to review their military leave policies to avoid potential litigation and reputational damage, says Bradford Kelley at Littler.