Class Action & Mass Torts

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Picture this. A lingering, unidentified illness has left you unable to work. Maybe youhave tried repeatedly to return to work, but a host of symptoms is making it impossiblefor you to continue in your job. Yet, despite multiple doctor’s visits explaining thesymptoms – and perhaps even medical tests proving various conditions- you do nothave a precise diagnosis for the underlying cause of the disability. In other words, youhave many symptoms, but they seem to be incapable of a single diagnosis.

This can be a real barrier to collecting a long-term disability (LTD) benefit from youremployer-sponsored disability plan. Take, for example,…
Continue Reading Name Your Claim: How Being Able to Correctly Identify Your Diagnosis May Help Collect Your Benefit.

A buzzworthy topic in the past couple years, especially as celebrities – and perhapseven your family and friends – are slimming down noticeably and quickly: weight lossdrugs. GLP-1 drugs, commonly referred to by the brand names such as Ozempic,Mounjaro, Zepbound, and Wegovy, among others, have grown in popularity in recentyears as a tool for weight loss.
Deemed wonder drugs by some, perhaps it’s not surprising that these drugs come at ahigh price; so high, that more insurers are balking – and increasingly refusing – to coverthem. With an annual cost averaging $12,000 for GLP-1s, Blue Cross Blue Shield ofMichigan announced…
Continue Reading Next in Line for an Employee Benefits Battle: Weight Loss Drugs

Since its enactment 50 years ago, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) hasproven to be one of the most dynamic acts in legislative history. It quickly transformed into lawnot only protections for retirement plans but also safeguards for all insured employee benefits.It solidified the fact that insured employee benefits such as pensions, 401(k) plans, healthinsurance, life insurance, and long-term-disability plans are legal contracts between anemployer and an employee. When an employee benefits dispute arises, only an ERISA attorneycan provide the most comprehensive and legally sound, experience-based approach to obtainingfor employees the insured benefits that are rightly theirs.
Employee benefits…
Continue Reading Why Your Employee Benefits Case Requires an ERISA Litigation Attorney

Billions of Dollars Hiding in Plain Sight: Federal Government Allows Private Insurers to Offset Their Financial Obligations With Social Security Disability Payments – Why?

ERISA attorney explains how non-partisan policy change would save money and benefit disabled American workers
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—February 27,2025— As the search for savings in federal dollars zooms forward, employee benefits and ERISA attorney and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway of J.J. Conway Law, notes that a longstanding offset allowed by the government continues to reward private insurers with billions of dollars for not paying…
Continue Reading Billions of Dollars Hiding in Plain Sight: Federal Government Allows Private Insurers to Offset Their Financial Obligations With Social Security Disability Payments – Why?

Are Insurance Company Denials Increasing?

The senseless and tragic killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in December 2024 prompted conflicting outcries. The first was the terrible realization that the CEO was targeted for death solely for his executive employment at a health insurer. The second – one that sent shockwaves throughout the country – was the number of people online who appeared to have been sympathetic to the killing based on their own negative experiences with health insurance premium denials.
While the story has simmered down, news outlets are reporting that health insurance denials – and those of other insurers – do…
Continue Reading Are Insurance Company Denials Increasing?

J.J. Conway Receives DBusiness Top Lawyers Honors for 2025

Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—November 6, 2024—Employee benefits and ERISA law firm J.J. Conway Law is pleased to announce that principal attorney, founder and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway has been recognized among DBusiness magazine’s Top Lawyers for 2025.  To compile its annual list, the magazine sent out a peer-review survey to certified attorneys throughout the metro Detroit area earlier this year to find and honor the top vote-getters in almost 50 legal practice areas. Inclusion is exclusive, based solely on the number…
Continue Reading J.J. Conway Receives DBusiness Top Lawyers Honors for 2025

Open Enrollment? Job Change? Make Sure Benefit Choices Satisfy the Three Pillars of Financial Security

Did you know that up to one-third of an employee’s overall compensation is paid to them in the form of benefits? For employees facing open enrollment decisions this fall or eying new career opportunities, the financial value and accompanying costs of employee benefits should take center stage.
With health insurance premiums rising 7% in 2024 – after a similar increase in 2023, employees are paying an average 14% more on health insurance than they did in 2022 – while merit pay increases are averaging 3.5% …
Continue Reading Open Enrollment? Job Change? Make Sure Benefit Choices Satisfy the Three Pillars of Financial Security

Employee Benefits Litigation Law Firm J.J. Conway Law Announces Office Relocation 

Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—-September 6, 2024—National employee benefits and ERISA attorney and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway is pleased to announce the relocation of his firm, J.J. Conway Law, to: 

150 W. 2nd Street, Suite 250
Royal Oak, MI  48067
The phone number, 313-961-6525, remains unchanged.
Since founding the firm 25 years ago, Conway has been involved with some of the most significant cases in employee benefits law history. Key cases range from wins in autism services coverage for…
Continue Reading Employee Benefits Litigation Law Firm J.J. Conway Law Announces Office Relocation 

Happy 50th Birthday, ERISA! Half a Century In, Employee Retirement Income Security Act Proves Its Value to Private Sector Workers in Pension, 401(k) and Health Plan Protections

Signed by President Gerald R. Ford on September 2, 1974, Act took effect in 1975; plus, why aren’t government workers protected by ERISA? 
Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—August 22, 2024—The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 established standards for private employer pension and health plans in order to protect employee benefit plan participants and their beneficiaries. Fifty years after its signing by President…
Continue Reading Happy 50th Birthday, ERISA! Half a Century In, Employee Retirement Income Security Act Proves Its Value to Private Sector Workers in Pension, 401(k) and Health Plan Protections

National Employee Benefits Litigator J.J. Conway Recognized by Leading Lawyers in 2024

Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—August 22, 2024—Employee benefits and ERISA law firm J.J. Conway Law is pleased to announce that principal attorney, founder and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway has been selected for inclusion on Michigan’s Leading Lawyers list for 2024 in the category of Employee Benefits. This honor is bestowed on fewer than 5% of Michigan’s licensed attorneys.
As his firm celebrates a milestone 25 years in 2024, the nationally recognized trial attorney has navigated the legal complexities of…
Continue Reading National Employee Benefits Litigator J.J. Conway Recognized by Leading Lawyers in 2024

Continuing a Record of Excellence, National Employee Benefits Attorney and Litigator J.J. Conway Receives 2024 Michigan Super Lawyers Accolades

Media Contact: Barbara M. Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; [email protected]; 248.260.8466
Royal Oak, Mich.—August 12, 2024—Employee benefits and ERISA law firm J.J. Conway Law is pleased to announce that principal attorney, founder and litigator John Joseph (J.J.) Conway has again been named to the Michigan Super Lawyers list in 2024 for demonstrating excellence in employee benefits law. This honor is bestowed on fewer than 5% of Michigan’s licensed attorneys.
Conway, who has been honored as a Michigan Super Lawyer since 2013, adds…
Continue Reading Continuing a Record of Excellence, National Employee Benefits Attorney and Litigator J.J. Conway Receives 2024 Michigan Super Lawyers Accolades

QUESTION: I CAN’T BELIEVE I MADE THAT STUPID GIFT, CAN I GET IT BACK?

ANSWER:  EVEN GIFTS MADE IN CONTEMPLATION OF MARRIAGE ARE NOT RETRIEVABLE!

We are all familiar with buyer’s remorse and hopes to rescind a contract.  But, can we get back gifts we later regret having made?

Almost seventy years ago, this issue was presented to Judge McGivern in Splendore v. Guglielmo the Supreme Court, Special Term, New York County, 205 Misc. 941 (1954).

Why did the donor want the gift back?

As Judge McGivern said:

“In Manhattan’s East Harlem, on the fiesta of Our Lady of Mt.
Continue Reading Irrevocable Gifts?

lindsay-henwood-7_kRuX1hSXM-unsplash steps succession planning Photo by Lindsay Henwood on Unsplash
Photo by Lindsay Henwood on Unsplash

QUESTION:    HOW CAN I KEEP MY BUSINESS GOING AND EVENTUALLY TRANSFER IT?

ANSWER:       SYSTEMIC BUSINESS SUCCESSION PLANNING CAN KEEP YOUR BUSINESS INTACT THROUGH THE UNCERTAINTIES AND CERTAINTIES OF BUSINESS CYCLES AND LIVES.

People die, get divorced, become disabled, or simply get mad at each other.  Businesses and markets expand and contract.  Capital and financing dry up.  Business cycles come and go, businesses thrive and fail.  How do you keep the enterprise on a solid footing through all of the vagaries of business and life?

Let’s start with the basics!

What is the Business and Who Owns It?

What kind of…
Continue Reading Succession planning for business

QUESTION:     CAN I EVICT MY DELINQUENT RESIDENTIAL TENANT?

ANSWER:        THERE IS NO LONGER A FEDERAL MORATORIUM AGAINST EVICTIONS OF RESIDENTIAL TENANTS

What was Covered by the Nationwide Moratorium on Evictions of Residential Tenants?
“The Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). . . imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions of any tenants who live in a county that is experiencing substantial or high levels of COVID-19 transmission and who made certain declarations of financial need.”  Alabama Association of Realtors et al. v. Department of Health and Human Services et al., 594 U.S. _______ (2021).
The…
Continue Reading Residential Evictions

QUESTION:     DO CHANGES TO RECEIVERSHIP LAW MATTER TO MY COMPANY?

ANSWER:        THE UNIFORM COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE RECEIVERSHIP ACT CAN REALLY HELP YOU OR REALLY HURT YOU.

What are the statutory powers of these new receivers?

The Uniform Commercial Real Estate Receivership Act (“UCRERA”) grants some of the most frequently used equitable powers of equitable receiverships to statutory receivers by default, with no specific court order needed.  The receiver by statutory authority has the ability to:

  • Control and manage property;
  • Operate a business related to receivership properties;
  • Pay debts related to receivership property;
  • Assert claims on behalf of parties

    • …
    Continue Reading When to Pass the Receiver

    QUESTION:     WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN APPEARING IN VIRTUAL COURT AS THE DEFENDANT?

    ANSWER:        DON’T MAKE YOUR TRAFFIC COURT APPEARANCE FOR A SUSPENDED LICENSE FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT OF A CAR!

    Watch that Zoom background!

    By now we all have a list of stories of things that should have been done differently in virtual meetings.  Simple things like closing the closet door or moving the hamper of dirty clothes before starting the Zoom meeting are overlooked repeatedly. 

    One party made a virtual appearance in federal court without his shirt!  And by now everyone has seen the video of…
    Continue Reading Zoom Into Court