Howard v. Berryhill

8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 9 TACOMA DIVISION LESLIE A. HOWARD, Civil No. 3:18-CV-05161-DWC 11 Plaintiff, 12 vs. ORDER ON MOTION FOR ATTORNEY FEES UNDER THE EAJA COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY, 14 Defendant.

15 For the reasons set forth in the parties’ stipulated motion for attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412, et seq., and good cause shown, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED AS FOLLOWS: 18 1. Plaintiff is hereby awarded $7,988.65 in fees and expenses under the EAJA. Under 19 Astrue v. Ratliff, 130 S. Ct. 2521, 2528-29 (2010), EAJA fees awarded by this Court 20 belong to the Plaintiff and are subject to offset under the Treasury Offset Program 21 (31 U.S.C. § 3716(c)(3)(B) (2006)). Any EAJA fees should therefore be awarded to 22 Plaintiff and not to Plaintiff’ s attorney. If, after receiving the Court’ s EAJA fee order, 23 the Commissioner (1) determines that Plaintiff has assigned her right to EAJA fees to 24 her attorney; (2) determines that Plaintiff does not owe a debt that is subject to offset 1 under the Treasury Offset Program, and (3) agrees to waive the requirements of the Anti-Assignment Act, then the EAJA fees will be made payable to Plaintiff’s attorney.

However, if there is a debt owed under the Treasury Offset Program, the Commissioner cannot agree to waive the requirements of the Anti-Assignment Act, and the remaining EAJA fees after offset will be paid by a check made out to Plaintiff but delivered to Plaintiff’ s attorney.

2. Plaintiff is hereby awarded costs in the amount of $1,213.20. Cost may be paid via check or electronic funds transfer.

DATED this 29th day of November, 2021.

A David W. Christel United States Magistrate Judge

Presented by: s/ David J. Burdett DAVID J. BURDETT Special Assistant United States Attorney Office of the General Counsel Social Security Administration Fifth Avenue, Suite 2900 M/S 221A Seattle, WA 98104-7075 Telephone: (206) 615-2522 Fax: (206) 615-2531 [email protected]