Virginia Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Blog

"ERISA Sucks" Judge Refuses to Vacate Order

You remember Judge Acker, the judge whose ruling I talked about in my recent blog about why ERISA sucks? Well, he's somehow managed to get even further on my good side.

In the same case in which he tore apart ERISA in his opinion, post-trial the defense cut a deal with the plaintiff that they wouldn't appeal the case if they agreed to have the opinion vacated. So the two parties called in to the judge's clerk to submit the motion to vacate over the phone. Judge Acker didn't take too kindly to their attempt, calling it "if not contemptuous, unlike any motion submitted to  [me] during [my] twenty-eight years on the bench."

Insurance companies often refuse to settle, go to trial, lose, then settle after trial in the hopes of keeping the adverse decision under wraps. Here's to Judge Acker, a man who is unwilling to bury justive alive to serve the interests of the insurance companies.

Here's Judge Acker's brief order denying the motion to vacate.