Lawyers Answer N.Y. Pension Probe With Class Action
As promised, a veteran municipal lawyer has filed suit in New York seeking to derail investigations into lawyers who receive sate pension benefits as a result of their work for schools and other government entities.
Albany lawyer James Roemer, who filed the suit as a class action, lists a host of memos and advisories that he says support the lawyers’ right to obain benefits.
Roemer claims Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigation is “politically motivated,” the Albany Times Union reports.
Cuomo and State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli are looking into whether lawyers are improperly enrolled in state pension plans because the lawyers were acting as independent contractors rather than employees.
Nearly a dozen lawyers have already lost benefits as a result of the probe.
The Times Union details several of Roemer’s arguments, including that it’s up to the state retirement system, not the beneficiary, who gets pension credits.
The paper notes that Roemer was featured in a 1997 article in which he explains how he was able to use retirement system rules to obtain benefits. In that article, a former comptroller said the benefits appeared legal.
The suit seeks a declaratory judgment prohibiting Cuomo and DiNapoli from investigating the pension fund and, specifically from striking names of members they deem ineligible for benefits, the New York Law Journal reports.
