Cetraro v. Saul

Background

Teresa A. Cetraro previously obtained a favorable ruling in her Social Security appeal. The court remanded her disability claim to the Social Security Administration for reevaluation of her residual functional capacity and whether she should be found disabled.

Cetraro then requested attorney fees of $14,693.60 and costs of $400 under the Equal Access to Justice Act, a federal law that can allow a qualifying party to recover litigation expenses from the government. She asked that payment be made directly to her attorney, Barbara Arnold.

Fee dispute

The Commissioner did not contest Cetraro’s entitlement to an award. The dispute concerned the amount. The Commissioner argued that several billing entries were duplicative or excessive and proposed an award of slightly less than 60 percent of the amount requested.

The court also noted that Cetraro’s counsel had not shown that the required discussion about fees took place before the motion was filed, as required by Civil Local Rule 54-5(b)(1). The court nevertheless considered the billing records and the parties’ arguments. It observed that counsel had already deducted nearly 30 hours from the almost 100 hours recorded, showing an exercise of billing judgment. The court also concluded that time spent addressing a potentially important jurisdictional issue was not automatically unrecoverable merely because the issue was raised in a reply or involved a new argument.

Ruling

The court concluded that Cetraro had not shown that the full amount requested was reasonable under all the circumstances. It applied an additional 10 percent reduction to the requested attorney fees.

Judge Seeborg granted in part and denied in part Cetraro’s motion. The court awarded $13,224.24 in attorney fees and $400 in costs. Payment was ordered directly to Cetraro’s counsel, subject to prior evaluation under the Treasury Offset Program.