Second Circuit: Five Factors Still Relevant To ERISA Attorney Fee Awards

The Second Circuit recently had occasion to provide guidance to the lower courts on the standard for evaluating an ERISA attorneys' fee application following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 560 U.S. 242 (2010). As previously reported, in Hardt, the Supreme Court observed that ERISA's fee shifting provision unambiguously allows a court to award attorneys' fees in its discretion to either party. Noting that a court's discretion is never unlimited, the Court held that a claimant must only show "some degree of success on the merits" before a trial court may award attorneys' fees under ERISA. In so holding, the Court stated that once a claimant has satisfied this requirement, and thus becomes eligible for an attorneys' fees award, a court may consider other factors in deciding whether to award attorneys' fees.