Not so much.
You may recall that after the Supreme Court in LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg, and Associates found that individuals could bring breach of fiduciary claims against their plans for mismanagement of their 401(k) accounts, there were many who predicted that such 401(k) suits would overwhelm the courts and generally spell disaster for the judiciary of this country (I didn’t predict that, but I thought the principle of the holding was an important one).
Now, that coming avalanche of litigation might still happen in some world where the sky is green, but interestingly I just received word from DeWolff, Boberg’s Supreme Court advocate, Tom Gies of Crowell and Moring, that Mr. LaRue has voluntary dismissed his claim in the action recognizing that he could not meet the applicable statute of limitations. Yup, that’s right. These claims are now so easy that Mr. LaRue decided he couldn’t proceed. In short, these types of claims are still extremely difficult for plaintiffs to prevail upon — for one reason, because of the statute of limitation issue that bit Mr. LaRue in the behind — and all the doomsday prognostications to the contrary seem just a tad off.
Cross posted at Workplace Prof Blog.
Update: LaRue did not continue his case because of statute of limitations but because, “after beginning discovery, Plaintiff has decided that it is not financially feasible to continue to pursue his claim.” But my point is the same: LaRue, because of the difficulties associated with these claims, will not lead to an avalanche of litigation.