Court Orders COBRA-Regulated Entity To Pay For Failure to Provide COBRA Notice

Books-A-Million, an employer that a court determined failed to provide COBRA notice to an employee, was ordered to pay approximately $40,000 in statutory penalties, approximately $42,000 in attorney’s fees and approximately $3,000 in costs. By failing to provide notice of the employee’s right to continue coverage, the employee went without dental insurance through an extended period of unemployment. The court noted that there was not “even a scintilla of evidence that the notice was ever mailed.”