Guzman v. Berryhill

Background

The opinion concerns attorney fees after an earlier order dated November 26, 2019. In that order, the court reversed the Commissioner of Social Security’s final decision and remanded the case for a rehearing under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), sentence four. Judgment was entered.

Fee Agreement

The parties stipulated that an award of $4,584.20 in attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d), was reasonable. The agreement stated that the award would not prevent Ruben C. Guzman from seeking attorney fees under section 206(b) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 406(b), subject to the EAJA’s savings-clause provisions. It also stated that the award was not a precedent and was not a concession by the Commissioner that the original administrative decision was not substantially justified.

The government would determine whether the fees were subject to an offset under the Treasury Department’s program for collecting certain federal debts. The fees were to be made payable to Guzman, but if no federal debt required an offset, the government would cause payment to be made directly to counsel under Guzman’s assignment.

Ruling

Judge Susan Van Keulen ordered the stipulated agreement: the defendant was to pay Guzman $4,584.20 in attorney fees. The order addressed the fee award and did not revisit the merits of the earlier Social Security decision.