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Peter Sessions

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Peter S. Sessions is a partner at Kantor & Kantor who has been with the firm since 2004. Peter represents individual clients seeking health, life, and disability benefits, typically under employee health plans.

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Miller v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., No. 20-30240, __ F.3d __, 2021 WL 2221347 (5th Cir. June 2, 2021) (Before Circuit Judges Haynes, Duncan, and Engelhardt).

Continuity of coverage provisions in benefit plans seem fairly straightforward – if you have coverage under your employer’s plan, when your employer switches insurance companies you should still maintain your coverage. However, employees, through no fault of their own, often get tripped up in these transitions and sometimes lose their coverage despite years of service to their employers. In this case, the Fifth Circuit prevented that from happening.
Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Construes Continuity of Coverage Provision in Favor of Disabled Participant

Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Ass’n v. California Secure Choice Ret. Sav. Program, No. 20-15591, 2021 WL 1805758, __ F.3d __ (9th Cir. May 6, 2021) (Before Circuit Judges Hurwitz and Bress and District Judge Clifton L. Corker (E.D. Tenn.)).

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 30 percent of private industry workers do not have access to an employer-provided retirement plan, amounting to almost 40 million employees. To combat this problem, many states (and the City of Seattle) have adopted government-run auto-enrollment retirement programs.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Determines CalSavers is Saved from ERISA Preemption

Peer v. Liberty Life Assurance Co. of Bos., No. 19-13974, 2021 WL 1257440, __ F.3d __ (11th Cir. Apr. 6, 2021) (Before Circuit Judges Wilson, Lagoa, and Brasher).

This week the Eleventh Circuit tackled one of the issues nearest and dearest to attorneys’ hearts: fees. Specifically, when a court awards fees under ERISA, against whom can they be awarded? The party, the attorney, or both? The Eleventh Circuit noted that this was “a question of first impression that has split the district courts within and without this circuit.”
Continue Reading Eleventh Circuit Holds That Fees Can Only Be Awarded Against Parties, Not Attorneys