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Attorney Fees Under ERISA

By Saranac Hale Spencer
November 30, 2014

After broaching the issue in a nonprecedential opinion released last summer, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit suggested during arguments on Oct. 21 that it might soon answer definitively whether the catalyst theory for recovering attorney fees applies in ERISA cases.

“I'm trying to sort out the law here … on the catalyst theory,” Judge Thomas L. Ambro told Mark Oberstaedt of Archer & Greiner in Haddonfield, NJ, who argued on behalf of CareFirst, a member of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and a defendant in the case. The catalyst theory allows plaintiffs to collect fees when the pressure of legal action causes a defendant to voluntarily change its conduct.

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