BNA Books' New 2010 Cumulative Supplement to Employee Benefits Law, Second Edition Offers Thorough Coverage of Critical Benefits Issues

Arlington, Va., January 2011 – BNA Books, a division of specialized news and information publisher BNA announced today the publication of the 2010 CUMULATIVE SUPPLEMENT to EMPLOYEE BENEFITS LAW, SECOND EDITION. The supplement and its main volume are published by BNA Books, in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS LAW, SECOND EDITION offers detailed, annotated coverage, providing careful analysis and balanced explanations of:

• ERISA Titles I and IV
• Rules of tax qualification, deductibility, and other key tax issues
• Interplay with related legal areas—including employment discrimination and labor relations
• A wide range of other issues attorneys face—or will face in the future

The just-published 2010 CUMULATIVE SUPPLEMENT features critical updates including coverage of the following U.S. Supreme Court decisions on ERISA from the October 2009 term:

• Conkright v. Frommert, regarding the discretion due to a plan administrator whose first interpretation of ambiguous plan provisions is rejected by the courts as arbitrary and capricious
• Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co., regarding the discretionary right of courts to award attorneys' fees and costs to a party in a case where the court had remanded the case to the plan administrator for review

Significant sections of the new supplement have also been newly rewritten, integrating complete discussions from the main volume, including:

• Chapter 11, Preemption: Introduction; Definition of an ERISA Plan; State Laws That Conflict With ERISA; and Preemption of Medical Malpractice and Related Claims
• Chapter 13, Benefit Claims: Evidentiary Issues in Benefit Claims, as well as a new section on Factors Used to Determine If There has Been an Abuse of Discretion in Benefit Claim Denials
• Chapter 15, Employment Discrimination and Employee Benefits: Sexual Orientation and Benefits Issues; and Veterans and Employee Benefits

Also included in the 2010 CUMULATIVE SUPPLEMENT is an appendix summarizing the major provisions-including their effective dates and potential grandfathered status—of the 2010 health care reform acts: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA). Summary information on the effects of health care reform appears in relevant chapters.