Employee Benefits Litigation

Wyche represents employers, retirement plans, claims administrators, plan fiduciaries and administrators, and individuals in a wide array of employee benefits claims, including claims brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”). Complementing the employee benefit counseling practice, the benefits litigation team furthers our commitment to provide clients with comprehensive legal representation in the employee benefits arena.

Our representation ranges from defending routine ERISA disability, life, and health benefit claims for large insurance companies to assisting business clients drawn into litigation relating to deferred compensation or pension plans. Wyche has experience handling claims brought under health, short term disability, long term disability, deferred compensation, severance, pension, and other benefit plans. As part of its employment benefits litigation practice, Wyche also counsels its clients and plan fiduciaries during the review of benefit claims, to place them in the best position to defend any subsequent challenge.

Representative Matters

  • We represented a large manufacturer that was sued under its deferred compensation plan. Following a trial on the merits, the federal district court adopted our argument that the plan correctly computed the amount due to the former employee.
  • We represented a national insurance company that was sued as a claims administrator for a long term disability plan that was governed by ERISA. Following a review of the administrative record, the court ruled in favor of the insurance company.
  • We sought and obtained certiorari – and an 8–1 reversal – from the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of our client, the shareholder of a corporation that had an ERISA judgment imposed on it in an earlier federal case. The plaintiffs sought to force our client to pay the judgment for benefits owed by the company’s plan. We persuaded the Supreme Court that there is no ancillary federal jurisdiction over a suit filed to collect a federal judgment from a party other than the judgment debtor.