Division VI · Corrections, Audits, and Disputes
Part 23. ERISA Disputes, Enforcement, Preemption, and Remedies
This Part covers §502 causes of action, standing, pleading standards, remedies and equitable relief, attorney's fees, limitations, exhaustion, standard of review, the administrative record and discovery (including the fiduciary exception to privilege), §514 preemption analysis (the Supreme Court canon, savings/deemer, complete preemption/removal), state PBM laws post-Rutledge, state auto-IRA mandates, the litigation-facing overview of DOL/EBSA investigations, litigation holds and preservation, and insurer-versus-plan allocation. Doctrine and risk analysis only — litigation strategy is reserved for litigation counsel.
Chapters
Chapter 1. ERISA §502 Litigation, Standing, and Remedies
This chapter covers the ERISA civil-enforcement architecture: the §502(a) causes of action, parties and standing, pleading standards (including Cunningham v. Cornell and the pending Anderson v. Intel), the remedies doctrine (the Mertens-to-Montanile equitable-relief line and Amara), attorney's fees, and limitations periods.
Law stated as of October 3, 2026
Chapter 2. ERISA Preemption and State Law
This chapter covers ERISA §514: the express-preemption architecture (relate-to, savings, deemer), complete preemption under §502, the full Supreme Court preemption canon (the working table every §514 analysis starts from), and the two live state-law fronts for multistate employer clients: post-Rutledge PBM regulation and state auto-IRA mandates.
Law stated as of October 3, 2026
Chapter 3. Claims Defense, DOL Investigations, and Litigation Process
This chapter covers the process layer of ERISA disputes: exhaustion, the standard of review (Firestone/Glenn/Conkright), the administrative record and discovery limits (including the fiduciary exception to privilege), litigation holds and preservation, a litigation-facing overview of DOL/EBSA investigations, and insurer-versus-plan allocation of liability and defense.
Law stated as of October 3, 2026
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