Federal District Courts Disagree on Compelling Individual Arbitration of ERISA Class Action

Benefits and executive compensation partner Kim Jones and business litigation associate Stephanie Gutwein coauthored an article for the American Bar Association about the challenges participants and beneficiaries face regarding ERISA-governed benefit plans.

Jones and Gutwein note that federal courts have not responded uniformly to these challenges and provide examples of recent decisions on the enforceability of mandatory arbitration and class action waiver provisions in defined contribution plans.

The authors explain that while recent decisions have yielded inconsistent results and are still working their way through courts of appeals, plan sponsors following this line of cases gain several takeaways from the decisions.