29 U.S.C. § 1133
Section 1133 · Claims procedure
This is § 503 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 1,032 court decisions — leading case Pilot Life Insurance v. Dedeaux (1987)
Most recently applied in Jeremy Smith v. Cox Enterprises, Inc. Welfare Benefits Plan (February 2025)
Applied most in the First Circuit Circuit (74 decisions)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 29 U.S.C. § 1132 · 29 U.S.C. § 1001 · 29 U.S.C. § 1002
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
In accordance with regulations of the Secretary, every employee benefit plan shall—
(1) provide adequate notice in writing to any participant or beneficiary whose claim for benefits under the plan has been denied, setting forth the specific reasons for such denial, written in a manner calculated to be understood by the participant, and
(2) afford a reasonable opportunity to any participant whose claim for benefits has been denied for a full and fair review by the appropriate named fiduciary of the decision denying the claim.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Regulations
Secretary authorized, effective Sept. 2, 1974, to promulgate regulations wherever provisions of this subchapter call for the promulgation of regulations, see section 1031 of this title.