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10-3746 Mathews-Sheets v. Astrue

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 8, 2011//

10-3746 Mathews-Sheets v. Astrue

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 8, 2011//

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Civil Procedure
EAJA

Even if an attorney’s fee request under the EAJA is excessive, the district court’s award of a lesser amount must be reduced where the district court incorrectly found the request untimely.

“[A] fee of $125 for legal services rendered in 2009 in a social security disability appeal seems awfully low, especially when multiplied by the cut-down level of hours allowed by the district judge to yield a total fee award of $6,625. Can a contested social security case really be litigated to judgment in a district court at a cost in legal fees of so minute an amount? Even at $170 an hour the total fee award would be only $9,010. In the circumstances, as we have explained, it was not improper for the lawyer to request the cost of living increase for the first time in his reply brief. The judge’s stated reason for rejecting the enhancement— that the request was untimely—was thus invalid. His mistake in invoking forfeiture, and the meagerness of the fee award, which resulted in part from that mistake, persuade us that he should take a further look at the plaintiff’s request for a cost of living adjustment.”

Reversed and Remanded.

10-3746 Mathews-Sheets v. Astrue

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Lawrence, J., Posner, J.

Full Text

Civil Procedure
EAJA
Even if an attorney’s fee request under the EAJA is excessive, the district court’s award of a lesser amount must be reduced where the district court incorrectly found the request untimely.
“[A] fee of $125 for legal services rendered in 2009 in a social security disability appeal seems awfully low, especially when multiplied by the cut-down level of hours allowed by the district judge to yield a total fee award of $6,625. Can a contested social security case really be litigated to judgment in a district court at a cost in legal fees of so minute an amount? Even at $170 an hour the total fee award would be only $9,010. In the circumstances, as we have explained, it was not improper for the lawyer to request the cost of living increase for the first time in his reply brief. The judge’s stated reason for rejecting the enhancement— that the request was untimely—was thus invalid. His mistake in invoking forfeiture, and the meagerness of the fee award, which resulted in part from that mistake, persuade us that he should take a further look at the plaintiff’s request for a cost of living adjustment.”
Reversed and Remanded.
10-3746 Mathews-Sheets v. Astrue
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Lawrence, J., Posner, J.

TAGS: 7th Circuit Digest, Civil Digest, Civil Procedure Digest

http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?submit=showbr&shofile=10-3746_002.pdf

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