Swanson v. Commissioner of Social Security

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 9 TACOMA DIVISION 10 MELVIN L. SWANSON, Civil No. 3:20-CV-5978-TLF 11 Plaintiff, 12 vs. ORDER FOR ATTORNEY FEES 13 COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY, 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 Plaintiff is hereby awarded $7045.15 in fees and $6.50 expenses under the EAJA. Under 19 Astrue v. Ratliff, 130 S. Ct. 2521, 2528-29 (2010), EAJA fees awarded by this Court

20 belong to the Plaintiff and are subject to offset under the Treasury Offset Program (31 21 U.S.C. § 3716(c)(3)(B) (2006)). Any EAJA fees should therefore be awarded to Plaintiff 22 and not to Plaintiff’ s attorney. If, after receiving the Court’ s EAJA fee order, the 23 Commissioner (1) determines that Plaintiff has assigned his right to EAJA fees to his 24 attorney; (2) determines that Plaintiff does not owe a debt that is subject to offset under 1 the Treasury Offset Program, and (3) agrees to waive the requirements of the Anti- 2 Assignment Act, then the EAJA fees will be made payable to Plaintiff’s attorney. 3 However, if there is a debt owed under the Treasury Offset Program, the Commissioner 4 cannot agree to waive the requirements of the Anti-Assignment Act, and the remaining 5 EAJA fees after offset will be paid by a check or ETF made out to Plaintiff but delivered 6 to Plaintiff’ s attorney. 7 DATED this ___7_____ day of _______April__________2022. 8 9 ______A_____ UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24