ERISA, the federal law that dictates certain conduct between beneficiaries and employee benefit plan administrators, has a reputation as being one of the more difficult statutes to litigate. Under the law, a beneficiary that is denied a claim has the right to seek judicial review at the federal level, although, the standard of review differs greatly. For any plan that provides discretion to the administrator, a court must review using the abuse of discretion standard, otherwise the denial will be review de novo by the court with no deference given to the actions of the plan administrator. This distinction is critical since abuse of discretion is almost always the standard applied and puts the burden on the plaintiff to show the decision was improper. If a client is engaged in an ERISA based retirement dispute, check the plan documents to see what discretionary authority is granted to the administrator. Finding a plan that failed to grant discretionary authority is of great benefit to an employee/plaintiff and greatly increases the odds of a favorable result in any lawsuit.
See Brian Spiro, How to Challenge A Denial Of Benefits Under ERISA, Retirement Plan Lawyer, August 6, 2015.
