Hakim v. Commissioner of Social Security
- James Cott
- 1:21-cv-01460
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Hakim v. Commissioner, Judge Cott granted Aliyah R. Hakim’s fee motion for $10,113.10 under the Equal Access to Justice Act.
Aliyah R. Hakim received the requested $10,113.10 fee award; the Acting Commissioner’s request to reduce the award was rejected.
What happened
In Hakim v. Commissioner, Aliyah R. Hakim asked for $10,113.10 in attorney’s fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act after the Social Security case was remanded. The Acting Commissioner did not dispute the request’s timing, Hakim’s status as a successful party, or the hourly rate, but argued that the attorney’s 43.9 hours were excessive.
Hakim argued that the hours were reasonable because the case involved a 1,325-page administrative record and the parties had fully briefed their requests for judgment before agreeing to a remand. She also sought payment for 2.4 additional hours spent responding to the fee dispute.
Judge James L. Cott granted the fee motion for $10,113.10. He found the 43.9 attorney hours and 0.6 paralegal hours justified, but did not award fees for the additional 2.4 hours because Hakim did not provide the required contemporaneous time records.
The detailed version
- Hakim v. Commissioner of Social Security · No. 1:21-cv-01460
- James Cott
- Jan. 10, 2023
Background
Aliyah R. Hakim moved for attorney’s fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d). She requested $10,113.10 for 43.9 hours of attorney work by Daniel Berger and 0.6 hours of paralegal work. The Acting Commissioner opposed only the amount of time claimed, arguing that the request should be reduced by $953.10 to compensate 40 hours of attorney work.
The Commissioner did not dispute that Hakim timely filed the motion, that she was a successful party as required by the statute, or that her requested attorney hourly rate of $229 was reasonable. The Commissioner also did not separately address the paralegal’s $100 hourly rate, except to argue that the paralegal time should be reduced to zero.
Court’s Analysis
The court explained that reasonable fees generally begin with the number of hours reasonably spent multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. Although courts often find that 20 to 40 hours is reasonable in routine Social Security cases, courts may award more when the circumstances justify it, including when the administrative record is large.
The court found the slightly more than 40 attorney hours justified. The administrative record exceeded 1,300 pages. The parties filed competing motions for judgment on the pleadings, and Hakim filed a reply before the parties entered into a remand stipulation. The court concluded that the Commissioner’s decision to seek a reduction based on the additional 3.9 hours was not persuasive, including because Hakim reasonably spent 5.2 hours preparing the reply.
Hakim also requested fees for 2.4 hours spent reviewing the Commissioner’s opposition to the fee motion and preparing her response. The court recognized that time spent litigating a fee motion can sometimes be recoverable, but declined to award those additional fees because Hakim had not provided contemporaneous time records. The court also noted that the claimed time was included only in a legal memorandum, and that an attorney’s unsworn statements in a brief are not evidence.
Disposition
Judge James L. Cott granted Hakim’s motion for Equal Access to Justice Act fees in the amount of $10,113.10. The Clerk was directed to close the fee-motion docket entry and mark it as granted.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.