Benefits & ERISA Law

ERISA Preemption and the Legal Services Plan

I have a bias against writing short posts that just, in essence, pass along someone else's work, without additional analysis, commentary or spin, which is good in many ways but does mean that it is tough to post when I am particularly busy at my day job. Nonetheless, I did want to pass along this short piece from the Legal Malpractice Law Review - which, despite its title, is a blog - on whether a legal malpractice action against an attorney who was providing legal services to a plan participant under a legal services plan can be preempted by ERISA. The answer, according to the case covered in the post, is that it can be, if one is not very careful in pleading the claim and constructing the theory. Its interesting to me because, infrequently but often enough to stick in my head, I hear from a participant in a company or union provided legal services plan who received the promised benefit of legal representation for a covered legal event, but with an outcome that screamed malpractice, and they want to know what claims they can bring against the lawyer or, just as often, the plan.

Full post as published by Boston ERISA Law Blog on September 17, 2010 (boomark / email).