Justin Alan Timm v. United States District Court for the District of Nevada

Opinion

1 Marc V. Kalagian Attorney at Law: 4460 2 Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC 12631 East Imperial Highway Suite C-115 3 Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670 Tel.: (562) 868-5886 4 Fax: (562) 868-8868 E-mail: marc.kalagian@rksslaw.com 5 Leonard Stone 6 Attorney at Law: 5791 Shook & Stone 7 710 South 4th Street Las Vegas, NV 89101 8 Tel.: (702) 385-2220 Fax: (702) 384-0394 9 E-mail: Lstone@shookandstone.com 10 Attorneys for Plaintiff Justin Alan Timm 11 14 15 JUSTIN ALAN TIMM, ) Case No.: 2:25-cv-01487-MDC ) 16 Plaintiff, ) STIPULATION AND ORDER FOR ) THE AWARD AND PAYMENT OF 17 vs. ) ATTORNEY FEES AND EXPENSES ) PURSUANT TO THE EQUAL 18 FRANK BISIGNANO, ) ACCESS TO JUSTICE ACT, 28 Commissioner of Social Security, ) U.S.C. § 2412(d) AND COSTS 19 ) PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. §§ 1920; Defendant. ) 2412; DECLARATION OF MARC V. 20 ) KALAGIAN ) 21 ) 22 TO THE HONORABLE MAXIMILIANO D. COUVILLIER, 23 MAGISTRATE JUDGE OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT: 24 IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED, by and between the parties through their 25 undersigned counsel, subject to the approval of the Court, that Justin Alan Timm 26 1 (“Timm”) be awarded attorney fees in the amount of EIGHT THOUSAND EIGHT 2 HUNDRED dollars ($8,800.00) and expenses in the amount of zero dollars ($0.00) 3 under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d), and costs in 4 the amount of FOUR HUNDRED FIVE dollars ($405.00) under 28 U.S.C. §§ 5 1920; 2412. This amount represents compensation for all legal services rendered 6 on behalf of Plaintiff by counsel in connection with this civil action, in accordance 7 with 28 U.S.C. §§ 1920; 2412(d). 8 Attorneys' fees awarded under the EAJA must be reasonable, but it is for the 9 district court to determine what fee is reasonable. Nerio Mejia v. O'Malley, 120 10 F.4th 1360, 1363-1364 (9th Cir. 2024). In this matter the parties agree that plaintiff 11 is the prevailing party, that plaintiff is eligible to receive an award of the requested 12 fees and costs, that the decision of the ALJ was not substantially justified, and no 13 special circumstances make an award unjust. The court should also consider the 14 results achieved. Remand was obtained through voluntary consent and agreement 15 of the parties. Through Counsel for the parties efforts, litigation was avoided in this 16 matter and the time expended was reasonable. 17 Therefore, Timm is entitled to reasonable attorneys’ fees based on the hours 18 reasonably expended (attached hereto as Exhibit 2) multiplied by the prevailing

19 rate as set by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals1 and as compared to other EAJA 20 awards at the district court level within the Ninth Circuit. See Ortiz v. Comm'r of 21 Soc. Sec., No. 2:21-cv-01563 KJM DMC, 2025 LX 334420 (E.D. Cal. Aug. 18, 22 2025) (granting EAJA fees of $11.036.00); Costa v. Comm'r of SSA, 690 F.3d 23 1132 *1133-37 (9th Cir. 2012) ("Many district courts have noted that twenty to 24 25 26 1 1 forty hours is the range most often requested and granted in social security cases."). 2 The hours performed in Timm’s case total 32.9. 3 After the Court issues an order for EAJA fees to Timm, the government will 4 consider the matter of Timm's assignment of EAJA fees to Marc Kalagian. The 5 retainer agreement containing the assignment is attached as exhibit 1. Pursuant to 6 Astrue v. Ratliff, 130 S.Ct. 2521, 2529 (2010), the ability to honor the assignment 7 will depend on whether the fees are subject to any offset allowed under the United 8 States Department of the Treasury's Offset Program. After the order for EAJA fees 9 is entered, the government will determine whether they are subject to any offset. 10 Fees shall be made payable to Timm, but if the Department of the Treasury 11 determines that Timm does not owe a federal debt, then the government shall cause 12 the payment of fees, expenses and costs to be made directly to Law Offices of 13 Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, pursuant to the assignment executed by Timm.2 14 Any payments made shall be delivered to Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, 15 Inc., CPC. Counsel agrees that any payment of costs may be made either by 16 electronic fund transfer (EFT) or by check. 17 This stipulation constitutes a compromise settlement of Timm's request for 18 EAJA attorney fees, and does not constitute an admission of liability on the part of

19 Defendant under the EAJA or otherwise. Payment of the agreed amount shall 20 constitute a complete release from, and bar to, any and all claims that Timm and/or 21 Marc Kalagian including Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, may 22 have relating to EAJA attorney fees in connection with this action. 23 24 25 2 The parties do not stipulate whether counsel for the plaintiff has a cognizable lien under federal law against the recovery of EAJA fees that survives the Treasury 26 1 This award is without prejudice to the rights of Marc Kalagian and/or the 2 ||Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, to seek Social Security Act 3 || attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b), subject to the savings clause provisions of 4 ||the EAJA. I certify that Artificial Intelligence was not used to prepare the 5 || foregoing document. 6 || DATE: April 24,2026 Respectfully submitted, 7 LAW OFFICES OF LAWRENCE D. ROHLFING, INC., CPC 8 /s| WareV. Kalagian * BY: 9 Marc V. Ralagian Attorney for plaintiff 1] DATED: April 2, 2026 SIGAL CHATTAH 12 First Assistant United States Attorney 13 14 |s| Christopher Viena Special Assistant United States Attorney 16 Attorneys for Defendant FRANK BISIGNANO, Commissioner of Social 17 Security (Per e-mail authorization) IT IS SO ORDERED:

20 ___Lf HON IMI D. COUVILLIER, III D SVAT GISTRATE JUDGE 22 23 DATED:_ April 27, 2026 24 25 ||3 Counsel for the plaintiff attests that all other signatories listed, and on whose 6 || behalf the filing is submitted, concur in the filing’s content and have authorized the filing.