Riness v. SSA Commissioner
- 3:25-cv-04332
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 4
In Riness v. Bisignano, the court awarded $9,150 in Equal Access to Justice Act fees and expenses and no costs under an approved stipulation.
Tazanna Ashley Riness received the fee award, subject to the stipulation and any federal-debt offset. Her attorney, Francesco Benavides, may receive direct payment if the offset conditions are satisfied. The government must process the award but did not admit liability.
What happened
In Tazanna Ashley Riness v. Frank Bisignano, the parties agreed that Riness should receive $9,150 in attorney fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The stipulation said the government’s position was not substantially justified.
The court ordered the fees and expenses paid under the parties’ stipulation and awarded no costs under the general federal costs statute. The payment is subject to possible government offset for federal debt, and the stipulation does not admit liability.
The court also left Benavides’s ability to seek separate Social Security Act fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b) unaffected. The judge’s name is not legible in the provided opinion text.
The detailed version
- Riness v. SSA Commissioner · No. 3:25-cv-04332
- Sept. 12, 2025
Background
Tazanna Ashley Riness and Frank Bisignano, identified as the Commissioner of Social Security, submitted a stipulation concerning attorney fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d). The parties stipulated that the government’s position was not substantially justified and agreed to an award of $9,150 for all legal services provided by Riness’s counsel in this action. They agreed that no costs would be awarded under 28 U.S.C. § 1920.
Terms of the stipulation
The stipulation provided that the fees would be payable to Riness. After the fee order, the government would determine whether the fees were subject to an offset under the Treasury Department’s Offset Program. If no federal debt prevented payment, the government would arrange for payment directly to Riness’s counsel, Francesco Benavides, under Riness’s assignment. The stipulation described the payment as a compromise settlement, not an admission of liability, and stated that payment would release and bar further EAJA-fee claims related to this action. It preserved Benavides’s ability to seek fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b), subject to EAJA’s savings-clause requirements.
Ruling
Based on the parties’ stipulation, the court ordered that $9,150 in fees and expenses be awarded under 28 U.S.C. § 2412, subject to the stipulation’s terms. The court ordered no costs under 28 U.S.C. § 1920. The provided signature does not identify the judge by a legible name.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.