John Houston Pope, a Member of the Firm in the Labor and Employment and Litigation practices in the New York office, was quoted in an article in EmploymentLaw360 on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in MetLife v. Glenn.

In the case, the Court ruled that an employer or insurance company that both determines eligibility and pays benefits under employee plans has a conflict of interest which a court may consider in determining whether benefits were improperly denied.

The article, titled, "High Court Affirms 6th Circ. In MetLife ERISA Suit," quoted Pope, who said the decision may encourage employers to move administrative duties for benefit plans to third parties to remove any indication of conflicting interests. "The impact of this is that it is going to call on every party who's a payor under ERISA plans and also administrators to reevaluate how they organize claim administration, whether it is isolating the people who make the claims decision or outsourcing to third parties to provide the appearance of impartiality to the court," Pope said.

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.