Berger & Montague has been at the forefront in the battle to protect patients and doctors from misconduct of insurers and managed-care providers.  We also represent employees whose 401(k) investments have suffered severe losses due to corporate misrepresentations or other wrongdoing.

In connection with 401(k) investments, the firm has taken a leading role in vindicating the rights of employees who invested in the stock of their own company.  Often it is imprudent for 401(k) plan fiduciaries to recommend or even to allow investment in company stock as one of the options available to 401(k) plan participants.  The firm served as co-lead counsel in In re Lucent Technologies, Inc. ERISA Litigation, Civil Action No. 01-CV-3491 (D.N.J.).  The Lucent case achieved one of the largest recoveries to date on behalf of 401(k) plan participants.  The recovery was in the amount of $69 million.

In addition, the firm served as lead counsel in In re SPX Corporation ERISA Litigation, No. 3:04 cv 192 (W.D.N.C.).  In SPX, suing on behalf of 401(k) plan participants who invested in company stock, the firm secured a recovery in the amount of approximately 90% of estimated losses, after attorney’s fees and expenses.  (This means that for every dollar lost as a result of the alleged ERISA violations, the firm caused $0.90 to be paid back to plan participants’ accounts.) The firm currently serves as co-lead counsel in In re Nortel Networks ERISA Litigation, Civil Action No. 01-CV-1855 (MD Tenn.), another major 401(k) company stock case.

In addition to employing federal laws designed to protect employees (ERISA), our practice in this area also makes use of a legal tool commonly wielded in the prosecution of mafia dons and drug kingpins, namely, the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, as well as state consumer fraud statutes and the common law.

The firm's caseload comprises, for instance, suits brought against most of the country's largest HMO's, including Humana, CIGNA, Aetna US Healthcare, and Kaiser Permanente, alleging that they have misinformed subscribers about the scope of the insurance coverage provided and failed to disclose an array of cost-suppression practices designed to restrict the scope of coverage. These and other similar suits seek the recovery of the value of coverage lost as a result of insurance companies' misleading practices, as well as recoupment of the amounts by which the insurance companies have been unjustly enriched at the subscribers' expense because of those undisclosed cost-suppression practices.

The firm's healthcare practice also includes significant qui tam cases. Qui tam, or "one who sues on behalf of the king as well as for himself," refers to a provision of the Federal Civil False Claims Act that allows a private citizen to bring suit in the name of the U.S. government, charging fraud by government contractors and other entities receiving government funds.

We also represent current and former employees at companies such as Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks who are the victims of securities manipulation and/or other wrongdoing, which has caused their 401(k) plan investments to plunge in value.

Berger & Montague brings to this practice area the expertise gained in such significant health-related cases as the diet drug litigation known by the shorthand Phen-fen, precedent-setting cases against tobacco manufacturers to recover state healthcare costs, the school asbestos litigation, in which costs of remediation were recovered, and other ground-breaking healthcare suits.

In each of these cases, the firm's experience, knowledge, and expertise are helping to bring about meaningful improvements, in tandem with legislative reform efforts, in the healthcare industry.