Verizon Benefit Plan Clawback Suit Against Worker’s Lawyer Fails

A Verizon disability benefits plan lost an attempt to claw back more than $40,000 in benefits paid to a former employee by suing her lawyer.

The plan didn’t prove the lawyer still possessed his $31,618 cut from a personal injury settlement he negotiated with the driver of a car who hit the employee, Judge Mary S. McElroy said. This is fatal to the plan’s bid for reimbursement under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, McElroy said, because the statute only allows lawsuits to recover specific pieces of property in a defendant’s possession, and not lawsuits seeking money damages generally.

Jacqueline ...