Reliance Standard’s Blown Deadline Leads to Court Loss

Reliance Standard Life Insurance’s delay in responding to a disability benefits dispute caused the insurer to forfeit a more lenient judicial review standard (Coats v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Policy, 2017 BL 140031, N.D. Okla., No. 4:16-cv-00233-TCK-tlw, 4/27/17).

A federal judge held April 27 that Reliance missed the 45-day deadline for responding to a benefit challenge under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. This violation was a “procedural irregularity” that necessitated stricter judicial scrutiny of Reliance’s decision denying additional benefits, the judge said.

The proper remedy when a benefit plan violates ERISA’s claims procedure rules has been a ...