Summary
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana grants the Commissioner’s motion to lift the stay and grants the plaintiff’s supplemental motion for attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b). The court awards $15,000 in supplemental fees based on dependent benefits, finding the amount consistent with the contingency agreement and reasonable under the circumstances. The award is analyzed alongside the prior § 406(b) and EAJA fee awards.
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Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether counsel should receive a supplemental attorney-fee award of $15,000 under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b).
- Whether the requested fee was reasonable and did not exceed the statutory 25-percent cap on past-due benefits.
- Whether the stay of proceedings should be lifted.
Holdings
- A court may award a reasonable fee to an attorney who successfully represented a Social Security claimant in federal court, subject to the statutory limit that the fee may not exceed 25 percent of the claimant's past-due benefits. The court granted counsel's supplemental request for $15,000.
- An award of attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act offsets an award under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b).
Key quotations
“Under § 406(b), the Court may award a reasonable fee to the attorney who has successfully represented the claimant in federal court, not to exceed twenty-five percent of the past-due benefits to which the social security claimant is entitled.”
“For this analysis, a district court must begin with the contingency award as its polestar and consider whether that amount should be reduced because it is unwarranted based on relevant factors”
Factual background
Plaintiff's counsel successfully represented Garnett in federal-court judicial review of an unfavorable disability-insurance-benefits decision. After remand, the Social Security Administration awarded Garnett $127,838 in past-due benefits and his three children $69,934 in dependent benefits. Counsel sought an additional $15,000 under § 406(b), which, when combined with the prior § 406(b) award, would result in total federal-court fees of $46,959.50 for 59.9 hours of work.
Procedural history
The court previously reversed and remanded the Commissioner's decision for further proceedings and awarded attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act. On remand, the Social Security Administration awarded the plaintiff $127,838 in past-due benefits and his three children $69,934 in dependent benefits. The court had previously awarded $31,959.50 in § 406(b) fees, offset by prior EAJA awards, and in this order granted an additional $15,000 supplemental fee.