Law Professors Ask SCOTUS to Expand Court Choice in ERISA Suits

Eleven law professors called on the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that companies can’t unilaterally limit the courts in which workers can sue over their health and retirement benefits.

The case, which involves the retirement package of a former Pfizer Inc. executive, asks whether benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act can force lawsuits over plan benefits into the company’s preferred court. These plan provisions—called forum selection clauses—violate the statute’s policy of giving benefit plan participants “ready access to the Federal courts,” the professors said in a May 28 brief filed by Sandals & Associates PC.

Forum ...