Big news today, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals made its decision in a case that consumers and their lawyers have been anxiously awaiting. CGI v. Rose is a case where a consumer used her employer’s health plan to pay for medical treatment after a car accident, and the employer argued that all of the settlement money belonged to them, not the consumer.

The Court of Appeals decided that while the employer is entitled to some reimbursement for what they spent on Ms. Rose’s medical treatment, they can’t take the whole thing. That decision is consistent with another one just decided by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, called US Airways vs. McCutchen.

This is a great win for consumers and for the lawyers who fought this issue.