Morales v. Colvin
- Alison Nathan
- 1:16-cv-00031
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Morales v. Colvin, Judge Nathan approved a $29,000 attorney-fee payment and required a $5,021 refund to Julio Morales.
Julio Morales and his attorney, Christopher J. Bowes, were affected by the approved fee arrangement; the Social Security Administration was directed to approve the payment.
What happened
In Morales v. Colvin, the court reviewed a magistrate judge’s recommendation concerning Julio Morales’s request to approve a contingent-fee arrangement in his Social Security case.
No objections were filed, so the court reviewed the recommendation for clear error and found none. It adopted the recommendation in full and granted Morales’s motion.
Judge Alison J. Nathan directed the Social Security Administration to approve a $29,000 payment to Morales’s attorney, Christopher J. Bowes. After receiving the payment, Bowes must promptly refund $5,021 to Morales.
The detailed version
- Morales v. Colvin · No. 1:16-cv-00031
- Alison Nathan
- Aug. 14, 2020
Background
The court considered Judge Moses’s December 16, 2019 Report and Recommendation. It recommended granting Julio Morales’s motion to approve a contingent-fee arrangement in his Social Security case.
Review of the Recommendation
The court explained that objections to the recommendation were due by December 30, 2019. No objections had been filed by the date of the order. The court therefore reviewed the recommendation for clear error, meaning an obvious mistake apparent from the record, and found none.
Ruling
The court adopted the Report and Recommendation in its entirety and granted Morales’s motion. It directed the Social Security Administration to approve a $29,000 payment to Morales’s attorney, Christopher J. Bowes. After receiving the payment, Bowes must promptly refund $5,021 to Morales. The order resolved Docket No. 27.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.