In an ERISA New York disability litigation against Aetna, Riemer Hess successfully argued the Court should review the case under the plaintiff-friendly de novo standard 鈥 substantially increasing the Plaintiff鈥檚 chances of prevailing. The Court, in following the Second Circuit Court of Appeals鈥 ruling in Halo vs. Yale Health Plan, stripped Aetna of its discretionary authority because it failed to to strictly adhere to the ERISA claims regulations, and its violations were neither inadvertent nor harmless.


