DirecTV and its owner, AT&T, have promised the US Department of Justice that they will not illegally share information with rival pay-TV providers in order to keep the price of TV channels down. The DOJ sued DirecTV and AT&T in November 2016, saying the satellite-TV company colluded with competitors during contentious negotiations to broadcast Los Angeles Dodgers games. AT&T initially said that …
A judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed against Illinois by a coalition of social services providers trying to force the state to pay more than $100 million in overdue bills. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Rodolfo Garcia ruled that the fiscally shaky state, which has racked up $8 billion in unpaid bills, was immune from lawsuits of this …
This month Penn joined a familiar list of peer universities — including Duke, Harvard and Yale — in a lawsuit over employee retirement plans. The class action lawsuit claims that University retirement plans have been charging fees that are too high for school employees. All of the schools involved are being accused on the grounds that they all use several providers, as opposed to one, to manage …
Not surprisingly, in its most recent round of “excessive fee” lawsuits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the plaintiffs’ bar has begun targeting 403(b) plans sponsored by higher education institutions such as Yale University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, and Duke University. Cases like Tibble v. Edison …
A recently enacted law amending Illinois’ Health Care Right of Conscience Act (HRC Act) is the subject of a new lawsuit claiming the change unlawfully limits the conscience rights of health care personnel by requiring them to refer patients to other providers for procedures they object to on religious grounds. SB 1564 requires health care facilities to develop protocols that …
Fallout from a state crackdown on the medical director of a chain of Washington pain clinics has expanded with new sanctions against more providers — and a lawsuit filed by the family of a patient who died. As many as 20 health-care providers who worked for Seattle Pain Centers have been suspended from the state Labor & Industries department network, which authorizes treatment for workers’ …
All eyes may be on the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule, but don’t forget the courts.Eleven major class-action lawsuits were filed in federal courts around the country against 401(k) sponsors or providers of retirement products in the fourth quarter of 2015. All involve alleged fiduciary breach claims of, among other things, excessive fees benefiting service providers in violation of the …