Summary
The Western District of Wisconsin grants Kimberly Janick’s attorney’s petition for fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b) following a sentence-four remand in a Social Security case. The court approves gross representative fees of $13,680.25, allows counsel to retain the previously awarded $5,800.00 in EAJA fees, and directs payment of the $7,880.25 net amount from withheld past-due benefits.
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Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether counsel's requested attorney fee under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b)(1)(A) was reasonable and could be approved in an amount not exceeding 25 percent of the past-due benefits.
- Whether counsel could retain the prior EAJA award while receiving the § 406(b) award, with the EAJA amount deducted from the gross § 406(b) award.
Holdings
- The court approved representative fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b)(1) in the gross amount of $13,680.25, finding the requested fee reasonable and within the statutory 25-percent limit.
- Counsel may retain the previously awarded $5,800.00 EAJA fee only as partial satisfaction of the § 406(b) award; the EAJA amount must be offset against the gross § 406(b) fee, leaving a net award of $7,880.25.
Key quotations
“a reasonable fee . . . not in excess of 25 percent of the . . . past-due benefits”
“out of, and not in addition to, the amount of [the] past-due benefits.”
“[A]n EAJA award offsets an award under Section 406(b).”
Factual background
The court had previously reversed and remanded Janick's Social Security case, and the remand resulted in past-due and auxiliary benefits totaling $13,680.25 for purposes of the requested representative fee. Counsel sought approval of a § 406(b) fee and asked to retain a prior $5,800.00 EAJA award, resulting in a net payment of $7,880.25 from past-due benefits. Neither Janick nor the Commissioner objected to the requested fee arrangement.
Procedural history
On December 16, 2019, the court reversed and remanded the case to the Commissioner for further proceedings under sentence four of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). After past-due benefits were awarded, counsel sought § 406(b) fees, and the court approved a gross award of $13,680.25, allowing counsel to retain a previously awarded $5,800.00 EAJA fee and directing disbursement of the $7,880.25 net balance from withheld past-due benefits.