Posted: 6/2008

Lonie Hassel was quoted in the New York Times article, "Court Upholds Ruling on Health Benefits" on June 20, 2008.  The article focused on the Supreme Court's MetLife Insurance Co. v. Glenn decision.  The case examined the conflicts of interest underlying most benefits decisions.

See an excerpt below: 

"Until now, employees who felt wrongly deprived of benefits could expect little help in court unless they could show that their plan administrators had behaved in an arbitrary, capricious or unprincipled way.  Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the majority, eased that requirement, but stopped well short of setting out specific new rules for when and how employees could challenge adverse benefits decisions.

'This is going to put the thumb on the scale in the employees' favor,' said Lonie A. Hassel, a partner at the Groom Law Group in Washington who represents companies in employee benefits litigation. 'But I think it's only going to make a difference in close cases.'"