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In Jacoby v. Hartford, 254 F.R.D. 477 (S.D.N.Y. 2009), the Federal District in New York City ordered Hartford to produce thousands of pages of documents pertaining to Hartford’s inherent conflict of interest. Rejecting Hartford’s claims of confidentiality and burdensomeness, the Court ordered Hartford to respond to plaintiff’s interrogatories and document demands, including the full production of Hartford’s BMS Claims Manual and SIU Reference Manual. The Court also rejected Hartford’s claim that documents held by its consulting firms Medical Advisory Group and University Disability Consortium were not within its “possession, custody or control.”
This decision is a valuable precedent because it provides a possible solution to the dilemma of being whipsawed between the insurance company and its consultants. When seeking documents, each entity claims that the other has the sole duty of producing the requested documents. In this case, the Court rejected Hartford's assertion that the documents held by its consultants, Medical Advisory Group and University Disability Consortium were outside Hartford's control. The Court ordered Hartford to use its influence with its consultants to obtain the requested documents. The Court held:

On January 12, 2009, Scott M. Riemer will receive the Public Education award of the New York City Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The Award is to salute Mr. Riemer for his volunteer services for Chapter members and for his pro bono efforts to make the procedures used for long-term disability insurance more equitable for those disabled by multiple sclerosis.

On December 2, 2008, Scott M. Riemer spoke at the ALI-ABA conference on "ERISA Benefit Litigation: From Pilot Life and Firestone to Glenn--Where are We Now." The conference was a Live Video Webcast from ALI-ABA's headquarters in Philadelphia, PA. Mr. Riemer represented the plaintiff's perspective on two ERISA litigation topics: "Procedural Nuts and Bolts;" and "Substantial Benefit Claims." Deidre A. Grossman, Esq. of Proskauer Rose LLP represented the defense perspective.

On November 3, 2008, Riemer Hess appeared as Panelists at the NY, NJ and CT Regional Conference of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers. The College is a non-profit professional association honoring the leading lawyers nationwide in the practice of labor and employment law. The team highlighted four paradigm shifts in ERISA law as a result of the Supreme Court's recent case MetLife v. Glenn:

On July 17, 2008, Scott M. Riemer served as a faculty member on a live webcast sponsored by the Practicing Law Institute. The topic of the webcast was the "A New Firestone Drill under ERISA: MetLife v. Glenn." Please take a look at PLI's website for more information. http://www.pli.edu/product/webcast_detail.asp?id=49490