Chambers v. Commissioner of Social Security

Background

Gwendolyn Burns Chambers, represented by counsel, sued the Commissioner of Social Security under the Social Security Act, seeking review of the decision denying her supplemental security income. In the earlier round of this case, the court granted Chambers’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, denied the Commissioner’s motion, and remanded the matter for further proceedings.

Chambers then applied for attorney fees and costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A). She requested fees for work on the underlying Social Security case and for preparing the fee application. The Commissioner opposed the request, arguing that the government’s position had been substantially justified and that the requested amounts were excessive.

Entitlement to Fees and Costs

The court explained that the Commissioner had the burden of showing that the government’s position was substantially justified—that is, supported by a reasonable basis in both law and fact. The court found that the Commissioner did not meet that burden.

In the underlying case, Chambers had argued that the Administrative Law Judge improperly weighed medical opinions and improperly evaluated her symptom complaints. The court stated that it had agreed with Chambers on all of those issues. It had found, among other things, that the Administrative Law Judge’s reasons for weighing the medical opinions were inadequate, omitted important information, materially distorted the record, mischaracterized Chambers’s activities and treatment history, and made unsupported assessments of the medical record.

The court concluded that the Commissioner’s arguments were not frivolous but were not substantially justified. It therefore held that Chambers was entitled to recover reasonable attorney fees and costs. The court also noted that the Commissioner’s separate argument that payment should go to Chambers rather than her counsel did not require a ruling because Chambers’s counsel agreed that payment would be made to Chambers.

Amount of the Award

The EAJA permits recovery of reasonable attorney fees. Chambers requested $7,184.09 for attorney work on the merits, $16.80 in costs, and $1,075.56 for work on the fee application. The requested attorney rate was $206.84 per hour, and the requested paralegal rate was $100 per hour.

The court found the rates reasonable. It also found that most of the recorded time and tasks were appropriate, but identified duplication and inefficiencies arising from the use of multiple attorneys and paralegals. Because the requested 38.4 hours of merits work was at the high end of the usual range but still within that range, the court deducted three hours of attorney time. The court also accepted Chambers’s proposed reduction of 1.1 paralegal hours for clerical work.

The resulting award was:

- Attorney time: 28.3 hours at $206.84 per hour, totaling $5,853.57 - Paralegal time: 6 hours at $100 per hour, totaling $600 - Fee-application work: 5.2 attorney hours at $206.84 per hour, totaling $1,075.56 - Costs: $16.80

Disposition

Judge Robert W. Lehrburger awarded Chambers $7,545.93 in fees and costs and requested that the Clerk terminate the fee motion at docket entry 30.