News

Douglas Young Appointed Special Master in Wit v. United Behavioral Health

February 10, 2021 Announcement

Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has appointed Douglas R. Young to serve as special master in the Wit v. United Behavioral Health class action. As special master, Doug will serve as an independent monitor to oversee and verify UBH’s compliance with the injunctive relief ordered by Judge Spero.

This is Doug’s sixth appointment as a special master by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Doug is a fellow of the Academy of Court-Appointed Masters. He also acted as counsel to a special committee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit investigating claims of judicial misconduct. In 2019-2020, Doug served as president of the American College of Trial Lawyers and chair of the Advisory Board of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

After a bench trial, Judge Spero found that UBH violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by creating and adopting coverage criteria for residential treatment of mental illness or substance use disorders that were more restrictive than generally accepted standards of care and the class members’ insurance plans. The court ordered UBH to adopt and use guidelines that are consistent with generally accepted standards of care and to reprocess class members claims using the guidelines, and mandated that UBH adopt protocols to train its employees and executives on the guidelines and UBH’s duties under ERISA.


 

Firm Highlights

News

Farella 2024 Partner Elevations: Cynthia Castillo and Greg LeSaint

Northern California legal powerhouse Farella Braun + Martel is pleased to announce the election of two lawyers to partnership effective Jan. 1: Cynthia Castillo and Greg LeSaint. “We are thrilled to elevate Cynthia and...

Read More
Publication

Wire Fraud Victims Have New Reporting Factors After Ciminelli

Originally published by  Bloomberg Law . Courts around the country have seen an influx of challenges to indictments and convictions since the US Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in  Ciminelli v. United States  last May...

Read More
News

Sarah Good Honored Among Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business

Read More
Publication

Reporting Dispute Claims Within Closely Held Wineries

Many wineries operate as closely held companies, meaning they’re owned by an individual or small group of shareholders, who are often members of the same family. Disputes regarding ownership interests can arise, particularly when directors...

Read More
News

Farella Braun + Martel Earns 2024 Best Law FirmsĀ® Rankings

Read More
Publication

Compelling Employees to Arbitration Suddenly Has Less of an Upside

On July 17, the California Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Adolph v. Uber Techs Inc., as to whether employees still have standing to sue for "non-individual" PAGA claims when they have been...

Read More
News

Scraping Battles: Meta Loses Legal Effort to Halt Harvesting of Personal Profiles

Alex Reese spoke to Matt Fleischer-Black of  Cybersecurity Law Report about the Meta v. Bright Data decision and its impact on U.S. scraping case law. Read the article here (paywall or trial).

Read More
Publication

Disputes Between Shareholders May Not Be Governed by Fiduciary Duties but Could Be Covered by Insurance

(As published in Private Company Director ) Disputes regarding ownership interests often arise in the context of closely held corporations, particularly when directors, officers, or majority shareholders sell or acquire ownership interests in the...

Read More
News

Farella Wins Complete Defense Ruling at Trial for Smart Meter Technology Company

Northern California legal powerhouse Farella Braun + Martel secured a complete defense victory for a smart meter technology company following a two-week bench trial in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California...

Read More
Publication

Major Decision Affects Law of Scraping and Online Data Collection, Meta Platforms v. Bright Data

On January 23, 2024, the court in Meta Platforms Inc. v. Bright Data Ltd. , Case No. 3:23-cv-00077-EMC (N.D. Cal.), issued a summary judgment ruling with potentially wide-ranging ramifications for the law of scraping and...

Read More