Korff v. O'Malley
- Haywood Gilliam
- 4:24-cv-07054
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 4
In Korff v. Commissioner of Social Security, Judge Gilliam approved a $9,400 attorney-fee award under a federal fee law.
Mark Korff, his counsel at the Homeless Action Center, and the Commissioner of Social Security. The payment remains subject to the Treasury’s possible offset determination and the stipulation’s payment terms.
What happened
Mark Korff and the Commissioner of Social Security agreed that Korff’s attorney should receive $9,400 under the Equal Access to Justice Act, a federal law allowing certain attorney-fee awards. The agreement concerned work in this federal court case.
The parties’ agreement said the payment would resolve all of Korff’s claims for fees, expenses, and costs under that law. Payment would be made to Korff, subject to possible government debt offsets; if no offset applied, the payment could go directly to the Homeless Action Center under Korff’s assignment. The agreement did not prevent counsel from later seeking fees under another Social Security law.
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. approved the agreement and ordered an attorney-fee award of $9,400 under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The order made the award subject to the agreement’s terms.
The detailed version
- Korff v. O'Malley · No. 4:24-cv-07054
- Haywood Gilliam
- July 17, 2025
Background
The parties submitted a stipulation concerning Mark Korff’s request for attorney fees and costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d). The stipulation stated that Korff’s counsel, as Korff’s assignee, would receive $9,400 for all legal services provided in connection with this civil action.
Agreement Terms
The stipulation described the $9,400 payment as a compromise settlement of Korff’s EAJA request and stated that it was not an admission by the Commissioner of liability under the EAJA. Payment would constitute a complete release and bar of any EAJA fee, expense, or cost claims relating to this action. The Commissioner would first consider the assignment of the fees to Korff’s attorney after the court entered an award. Payment would be subject to any offset under the United States Department of the Treasury’s Offset Program. The stipulation stated that payment would be made payable to Korff, but, if the Treasury determined that Korff did not owe a federal debt, the payment would be made directly to the Homeless Action Center under Korff’s assignment. The award was stated to be without prejudice to counsel’s ability to seek attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b), subject to the EAJA’s savings-clause requirements.
Ruling
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. approved the parties’ stipulation and ordered that Korff be awarded $9,400 in attorney fees under the EAJA, as authorized by 28 U.S.C. §§ 1920 and 2412(d), subject to the stipulation’s terms. This was an ancillary fee ruling and did not decide the underlying Social Security benefits dispute.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.