Fields v. Commissioner of Social Security
- Alison Nathan
- 1:19-cv-00018-AJN-DCF
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Fields v. Commissioner, Judge Nathan granted Fields’s motion for $14,677.75 in attorney’s fees and ordered counsel to refund $8,200.
Chavon Shanta Fields and her counsel; the order set counsel’s fee at $14,677.75 and required counsel to refund Fields $8,200.
What happened
Fields v. Commissioner of Social Security concerned a request by Chavon Shanta Fields’s lawyer for attorney’s fees under a federal law governing fees in Social Security cases. Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman recommended granting the request.
No one objected to the recommendation by the deadline. The district court therefore reviewed it for clear error—an obvious mistake in the record—and found none.
Judge Nathan adopted the recommendation in full, granted the motion, awarded Fields’s counsel $14,677.75, and ordered counsel to promptly refund Fields the $8,200 previously awarded under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The court directed the clerk to enter judgment and close the case.
The detailed version
- Fields v. Commissioner of Social Security · No. 1:19-cv-00018-AJN-DCF
- Alison Nathan
- Mar. 22, 2022
Background
The court had referred this Social Security case to Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman. Judge Freeman filed a Report and Recommendation on February 18, 2022, recommending that the court grant Chavon Shanta Fields’s motion for attorney’s fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b)(1).
Review of the Recommendation
Under the governing statute, a district court may accept, reject, or modify a magistrate judge’s recommendation. Because no objections were filed and the objection deadline had passed, the court reviewed the recommendation for clear error. The court found no clear error in the record.
Ruling
Judge Alison J. Nathan adopted the Report and Recommendation in its entirety and granted Fields’s motion for attorney’s fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b)(1). The court ordered that Fields’s counsel receive $14,677.75 and promptly refund Fields the $8,200 in attorney’s fees previously awarded under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The court stated that the order resolved docket number 32, directed the clerk to enter judgment consistent with the recommendation, and ordered the case closed.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.