“The description for each of these emails is either “Redacted portion reflecting confidential attorney-client communications with BCBSM Legal Department regarding MLR issues” or “Email reflecting confidential attorney-client communications with BCBSM Legal Department regarding MLR issues.” …
“[T]he only issue before the Court is whether discovery regarding potential class members outside of the state of Pennsylvania is relevant to Plaintiff’s claims under ERISA. Aetna argues that this discovery is irrelevant because Plaintiff’s …
It is true that the claims overlap. But where they do, they operate as alternate theories of liability. Pleading multiple causes of action and alternative theories of liability is a standard practice of civil litigation. …
As Abatie and Glenn materially altered the standard of review applicable to the review of a plan administrator’s denial of benefits under ERISA, permitting consideration of evidence outside of the administrative record to determine the …
As I noted in a recent opinion, a clear distinction must be drawn between the Court’s allowing supplementation of the administrative record and the Court’s considering extra-record evidence: “For a court to supplement the record, …
In the context of ERISA, courts have found that an ERISA plan fiduciary generally may not assert the attorney-client privilege against plan participants with regard to matters of plan administration. Tatum v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco …
Here, there are no terms in the plan which allow it to be amended by inserting into the SPD such critical provisions as the administrator’s discretionary authority to interpret the plan or to determine eligibility …
ERISA provides federal courts with jurisdiction to review benefits determinations made by fiduciaries or plan administrators. 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B); see also Lopez ex rel. Gutierrez v. Premium Auto Acceptance Corp., 389 F.3d 504, 509 …
In the present case, the plaintiff asserts its procedural challenge on the grounds that, given the different versions of the administrative record produced during discovery, many of which lacked important medical records initially provided by …
The fiduciary exception to the attorney-client privilegehas its roots in 19th-century English common-law casesholding that, “when a trustee obtained legal advice relating to his administration of the trust, and not in antici-pation of adversarial legal …