Life, Health, Disability and ERISA Litigation Practice Group
Goldberg Segalla LLP’s Life, Health, Disability and ERISA Litigation Practice Group is devoted to representing and counseling clients on issues arising from the administration of Employee Retirement and Income Security Act (“ERISA”) benefits.
Our practice group possesses comprehensive knowledge of the complexities that frequently arise in life, health, and disability benefits litigation. We aggressively defend insurers and plan administrators in state and federal courts throughout the United States. As part of its Best Practices philosophy, Goldberg Segalla’s Life, Health, Disability and ERISA Litigation Practice Group maintains current awareness of court decisions throughout the nation. More than many other areas of law, life, health, and disability decisions in one jurisdiction or Federal Circuit are likely to have spill over into others. Staying abreast is especially critical for plan and claim administrators with multiple similar claims in different jurisdictions. In order to best serve our clients, our Group does not consider itself resident in any particular Goldberg Segalla office or any particular jurisdiction. It is upon this broad base that we consider ourselves uniquely qualified to represent our clients on a national level.
The attorneys in the Life, Health, Disability and ERISA Litigation Practice Group have heightened appreciation of the nuances associated with employee benefits claims. This includes:
- Proactive and prompt removal of ERISA cases to the federal courts
- Attention to evolving issues concerning ERISA preemption, including preventing of claims of estoppel, waiver, bad faith, fraud, etc.
- Market-timing, annuity and investment litigation
- Ensuring the proper confines of discovery, including limitation to the administrative record and limitation of discovery against an insurer or carrier regarding its claims process
- Aggressive motion practice to dismiss common law claims and preclude experts
- Awareness of emerging challenges to discretionary clause language, including the recent California decisions regarding that State’s disapproval of such language
- Emerging theories of liability in health plan litigation
- Disputes among overlapping policies, as well as coverage issues between and among insurers
- Unique contestability, fraud, material misrepresentation and cancellation issues
With more than 90 years combined experience, our Group includes Partners Daniel W. Gerber, Richard J. Cohen, Joanna M. Roberto, Sharon Angelino, Thomas M. Moll, Richard A. Braden and Bruce W. Hoover. Mr. Gerber chairs this practice group and has extensive experience trying and litigating complex life, health and disability cases. He is the immediate past Annual Meeting Chair for the Defense Research Institute's Life, Health and Disability Committee. He has spoken and published nationally on Disability, Life and ERISA issues. Mr. Gerber brings unique experience to the group as a practitioner well versed in all aspects of insurance coverage disputes. In this regard, he is the Immediate Past Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Insurance Coverage Committee. In particular, Mr. Gerber and Mr. Cohen are Co-Author's of the life insurance chapter of the prestigious Appleman's Insurance Law Practice Guide.
Like Mr. Gerber, Richard J. Cohen, has years of experience litigating all types of insurance coverage matters. He is the firm’s managing partner and has served as the Membership Chair for the Defense Research Institute’s Life Health and Disability Committee. Thomas F. Segalla currently serves as the Board of Directors Liaison to DRI's Life, Health and Disability Committee. Thomas M. Moll, Bruce W. Hoover, Richard A. Braden and Joanna M. Roberto have all successfully represented insurers in these types of matters, as have our Associates, Kimberly E. Whistler and Carrie P. Appler. Mrs. Whistler currently serves on the Disability Committee of the International Claims Association. She is also the Chair of DRI Life Health and Disability Committee's Young Lawyer's Sub-Committee.
The Life, Health, Disability and ERISA Litigation Practice Group offers its clients a practice focused on the Firm’s Best Practices Philosophy. As a group, we concentrate on keeping our clients informed, meeting their guidelines, and obtaining early and favorable resolutions.
Please contact Dan Gerber or Rick Braden for additional information.
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