If you’re involved in the legal business for any length of time, every once in a while, you’ll come across a case in which the facts are so horrible, and the result so seemingly wrongheaded, that you can’t help but feel that our entire system has failed. A recent decision from the Third Circuit, Arena
life insurance
Your life insurance may be illegal
By Gene Killian on
Posted in Insurable interest, Life insurance
In Billy Wilder’s 1944 film noir masterpiece, “Double Indemnity,” Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect on his accident policy. (Who knew insurance could be so seedy?) The suspicious and relentless claims adjuster, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), eventually gets to the bottom of the…
ERISA’s “arbitrary and capricious” standard
By Gene Killian on
There’s a disturbing article over at Bloomberg about the (pretty horrendous) games insurance companies play with respect to policies governed by ERISA. The ironic thing is that the ERISA statute was designed to protect workers. But the so-called “arbitrary and capricious” standard of review sets such a low bar that claims often get denied for reasons invented…