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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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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

Romano v. John Hancock Life Ins. Co., No. 19-21147-CIV, 2021 WL 949939 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 12, 2021) (Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman).

As the readers of this newsletter know, the federal courts have long decided that claims under ERISA are traditionally equitable in nature, and as a result, litigants typically are not entitled to a trial by jury. However, the Supreme Court has issued several decisions in recent years suggesting that claims under ERISA can be viewed as legal or equitable, depending on the relief requested. As a result, attorneys representing ERISA plaintiffs have started wondering whether they should be pushing back against the established notion that their clients are not entitled to jury trials. This case is another chapter in that story.

Continue Reading Jury Trials in ERISA Cases?