Litigants who catalyze the defense to change course in an ERISA case, even if there is no judgment from the court, can still seek to collect attorney fees in the Third Circuit.

The appeals court made the ruling in a decision that officially endorsed for the first time the catalyst theory for attorney fee recovery in cases brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

The U.S. Supreme Court's 2001 decision in Buckhannon Board & Care Home v. West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, which rejected the use of the catalyst theory in cases brought under the Fair Housing Amendments Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, could have been a roadblock, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that ERISA is different than those statutes.