{"id":277,"date":"2015-11-04T23:12:23","date_gmt":"2015-11-05T07:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/?p=277"},"modified":"2016-03-01T13:12:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T21:12:44","slug":"expert-testimony-regarding-the-erisa-fiduciary-standard-of-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/04\/expert-testimony-regarding-the-erisa-fiduciary-standard-of-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert Testimony Regarding the ERISA Fiduciary Standard of Care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"http:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\">Joseph A. Garofolo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Courts regularly\u00a0allow ERISA expert testimony relating to the fiduciary standard of care, especially in complex cases.<em>\u00a0 See, e.g.<\/em>, <em>In re Reliant Energy ERISA Litig.<\/em>, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48034, at *3,\u00a0*7-*8 (S.D. Tex. Aug. 19, 2005);\u00a0<em>Smith v. Sydnor<\/em>, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20074, at *57-*58 (E.D. Va. Aug. 25, 2000); <em>Flanigan v. GE<\/em>, 93 F. Supp. 2d 236, 242-243 (D. Conn. 2000).\u00a0 As explained by\u00a0one court when rejecting an effort to exclude testimony that an ERISA\u00a0fiduciary breached its duties, &#8220;expert witnesses, in all types of litigation, render an opinion as to what the applicable standard of care is and whether it has been complied with.\u201d\u00a0 <em>Harris v. Koenig<\/em>, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51860, at *6 (D.D.C. May 16, 2011).<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the vast majority of\u00a0ERISA fiduciary breach cases are heard by a judge.\u00a0\u00a0And\u00a0courts in most federal circuits\u00a0have\u00a0recognized that there is a\u00a0relaxed standard for admissibility of expert testimony\u00a0in bench trials.\u00a0 <em>See, <\/em><em>e.g.<\/em>,<em> United States v. Wood<\/em>, 741 F.3d 417, 425\u00a0(4th Cir. 2013); <em><span class=\"SS_un\">David E. Watson, P.C. v. United States<\/span><\/em>, 668 F.3d 1008, 1015 (8th Cir. 2012); <em>Att&#8217;y Gen. of Okla. v. Tyson Foods, Inc.<\/em>, 565 F.3d 769, 779 (10th Cir. 2009); <em>United States v. Brown<\/em>, 415 F.3d 1257, 1268\u00a0(11th Cir. 2005); <em>Deal v. Hamilton Cnty. Bd. of Educ.<\/em>, 392 F.3d 840, 852 (6th Cir. 2004); <em>Serby v. First Alert, Inc.<\/em>, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 95612, at *3 (E.D.N.Y. July 22, 2015); <em>Wolkowitz v. Lerner<\/em>, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34698, at *5\u00a0(C.D. Cal. Apr. 21, 2008).<\/p>\n<p>Thus, in addition to the fact that fiduciary breach cases are often complex, there is\u00a0a significant likelihood that competing expert testimony will be heard by a judge in\u00a0ERISA cases, including litigation\u00a0involving 401(k) plans and employee stock ownership plans.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Joseph A. Garofolo Courts regularly\u00a0allow ERISA expert testimony relating to the fiduciary standard of care, especially in complex cases.\u00a0 See, e.g., In re Reliant Energy ERISA Litig., 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48034, at *3,\u00a0*7-*8 (S.D. Tex. Aug. 19, 2005);\u00a0Smith v. Sydnor, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20074, at *57-*58 (E.D. Va. Aug. 25, 2000); Flanigan &#8230; <span class=\"more\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/04\/expert-testimony-regarding-the-erisa-fiduciary-standard-of-care\/\"><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,5,13,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-jgarofolo","4":"post-277","6":"format-standard","7":"category-401k-plans","8":"category-erisa-expert-testimony","9":"category-fiduciary-duties","10":"category-health-plans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282,"href":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erisa-experts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}