Holmes v. Commissioner of Social Security

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 10 ALISHA HOLMES, Civil No. 3:21-CV-05452-TLF 11 Plaintiff, 12 vs. ORDER 14 Defendant. 15 For the reasons set forth in the parties’ stipulated motion for attorney fees under the 16 Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412, et seq., and good cause shown, IT IS 17 HEREBY ORDERED AS FOLLOWS: 18 1. Plaintiff is here by awarded $5,228.38 in fees and $3.54 in expenses under the EAJA.

19 Under Astrue v. Ratliff, 130 S. Ct. 2521, 2528-29 (2010), EAJA fees awarded by this 20 Court belong to the Plaintiff and are subject to offset under the Treasury Offset 21 Program (31 U.S.C. § 3716(c)(3)(B) (2006)). Any EAJA fees should therefore be 22 awarded to Plaintiff and not to Plaintiff’s attorney. If, after receiving the Court’s 23 EAJA fee order, the Commissioner (1) determines that Plaintiff has assigned her right 24 to EAJA fees to her attorney; (2) determines that Plaintiff does not owe a debt that is 1 subject to offset under the Treasury Offset Program, and (3) agrees to waive the 2 requirements of the Anti-Assignment Act, then the EAJA fees will be made payable 3 to Plaintiff’s attorney. However, if there is a debt owed under the Treasury Offset 4 Program, the Commissioner cannot agree to waive the requirements of the Anti- 5 Assignment Act, and the remaining EAJA fees after offset will be paid by a check 6 made out to Plaintiff but delivered to Plaintiff’ s attorney. 7 8 DATED this 13th day of April, 2022. 9 A 10 ____________________________________ Theresa L. Fricke 11 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 12 13 Presented by: 14 s/ Kelly S. Arefi Special Assistant United States Attorney 16 Office of the General Counsel Social Security Administration 17 701 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2900 M/S 221A Seattle, WA 98104-7075 18 Telephone: (206) 615-3883 Fax: (206) 615-2531 19 kelly.arefi@ssa.gov 20 21 22 23 24