The timeframe for resolving an ERISA case depends a little bit on the nature of the benefit at issue and also the complexity of the case and where it is in its life cycle. If we’re talking about a long-term disability benefit claim, which is the most common type of ERISA claim that gets litigated, the appeal process can take up to 180 days to submit your appeal. Presently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those deadlines are extended a bit further. But in a typical case, it takes 180 days to submit an appeal. Sometimes the appeal is submitted sooner, sometimes not. Once the appeal is submitted, the plan fiduciary, typically the insurance company who’s reviewing the claim, has 45 days to consider the disability appeal, and they can take on an additional 45-day extension if necessary. So I like to tell clients that you should expect a disability appeal to take 90 days to be considered once it’s been submitted.
If you have 180 days plus 90 days, you are looking at about nine months to have a disability appeal decided from the date your benefits are denied on the long end. It could take longer, especially if there’s an agreement between the insurance company and counsel to extend the deadlines for whatever reason. Once the appeal is decided, again, in a perfect world, if the claim’s denied, that’s it. And your benefits are reinstated. There may be a lag of a week or two to get your payment. But from that point forward, things move fairly smoothly.
If the case is going to litigation, on the other hand, it can take months or years. The overwhelming majority of ERISA claims are resolved via settlement, but not every claim. And we have cases, for example, that we’ve been litigating for several years, but we also have claims that we litigate in court, and it takes several months. So it really depends. But once you file the lawsuit, the case will be assigned to a judge, and it takes typically about 60 to 90 days for a case to get moving once it has been filed in federal court. And the reason for that is there is a period of time in which the defendants have been served with a lawsuit, and they have an opportunity to respond. Oftentimes, they get 60 days to respond because they do something called waiving service. So you don’t need to use a formal process server. Then the judge has to set the case in for a scheduling hearing. And then the case proceeds from there.
In many cases, in particular in federal court, once the case has been set in for a scheduling conference, you may get referred to a settlement conference, which is a mediation before United States Magistrate Judge. And there’s a good chance the case will resolve at that point. So I would say it’s fairly common if an ERISA claim is going to settle. It will settle within the first six months. It is in litigation, not always. If the case goes the duration, it may take about six to 12 months for the case to be fully briefed for the court to have a motion in front of it to make a decision. And then there’s no timetable for the judge to make a ruling. I would say it’s fairly common for judges to rule on motions for summary judgment within about four to six months. But I have had some judges take far longer, and some take far less time. There are a number of constraints on our ability to move these cases along faster. There are certain things we certainly can do that will move cases along, including providing, applying consistent pressure on the other side who move the case.
Time is a defendant’s best friend. The longer they can delay a case, the longer it is before they have to pay on a case. So we can put, we can, and we do push to move these cases along, seek discovery. If we’re going to have a settlement conference, get that settlement conference scheduled sooner rather than later. But the reality of litigation in federal court and in state court is it takes time. And the one thing you cannot push is the judge. And the judge will issue the schedule that the judge wants, and the judge will rule on the case when the judge wants or is able to, and that is unfortunately, part of how this process works.