Doughty v. Social Security ( 2021 )

1 Hal Taylor, Esq. Of Counsel, Olinsky Law Group 2 NV Bar No.: 4399 3 2551 West Lakeridge Shores Reno, NV 89519 4 Tel: (775) 825-2223 Fax: (775) 329-1113 5 Email: HalTaylorLawyer@gbis.com 6 Attorney for Plaintiff 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEVADA 8 9 ANNA DOUGHTY, ) 10 ) Plaintiff, ) C ASE NO. 2:21-cv-00676-WGC 11 ) v. ) 12 ) S ECOND MOTION 13 ) FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE KILOLO KIJAKAZI, ) PLAINTIFF’S BRIEF 14 COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY, ) ) 15 Defendant. ) 16 __________________________________ ) 17 Plaintiff, Anna Doughty, by her attorney, Hal Taylor, Esq., Of Counsel, Olinsky Law 18 Group, hereby moves for a thirty-day extension of time to file Plaintiff’s Opening Brief. 19 Plaintiff’s opening brief is currently due to be filed January 3, 2022. This is Plaintiff’s second 20 21 request for an extension of time in this matter. On October 28, 2021, this Court graciously 22 granted Plaintiff’s first Motion for an Extension of Time (Dkt. No. 16). 23 Counsel requests this extension of time in this matter are due to a culmination of events 24 which have caused such extraordinary circumstances that such extensions are warranted. As 25 noted in the attached Declaration of Howard D. Olinsky, managing partner of Olinsky Law 26 27 Group, after the initial shutdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic in March, 2020, the 28 Commissioner’s capacity to produce Administrative Records fell from 300 Administrative 1 Records a week to essentially zero for a large portion of 2020. As of January 2021, the Agency 2 reported over 11,000 pending cases. After months of delay due to the Agency’s inability to 3 produce Administrative Records, the Agency expanded their out-of-office capacity to over 700 4 Administrative Records per week. As of mid-September 2021, the Agency reduced the number 5 6 of pending cases to just 2,350, a decrease of 8,650 cases in just over nine (9) months. In tandem 7 with the decrease in production of Administrative Records throughout 2020, the Appeals Council 8 withheld claims containing, inter alia, claims of constitutional violations under the Supreme 9 Court’s holding in Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 140 S. Ct. 2183 10 (June 29, 2020). As evidenced in the attached Declaration, Olinsky Law Group went from 11 12 receiving 65 Appeals Council denials in October 2020 to just 25 Appeals Council denials in 13 November and December of 2020. Subsequently in January 2021, the Agency released 14 Emergency Message-21002, which directed staff to flag claims in which the Seila issue was 15 raised and to continue processing these claims without discussing or making any finding 16 17 regarding the Seila issue. As evidenced in the attached Declaration, Olinsky Law Group then 18 received 541 Appeals Council denials in January 2021; 1,127 Appeals Council denials in 19 February 2021; and 358 Appeals Council denials in March 2021. Further, these numbers only 20 represent internal Appeals Council denials received by the Olinsky Law Group, who represents a 21 significant number of additional clients who are referred to this office by non-attorney 22 23 representatives or unaffiliated attorneys. 24 Olinsky Law Group filed 166 briefs in November of 2021, and this figure does not 25 include Reply Briefs, Objections to Report and Recommendations, Responses to Motions, 59(e) 26 Responses, Oral Arguments, appeals to the Circuit Courts, EAJA petitions, Fee Litigation, 27 28 406(b) Petitions, and other miscellaneous tasks which arise throughout the course of litigation. 1 || Currently, Olinsky Law Group has 170 briefs scheduled to be drafted in December, 2021, 182 * briefs scheduled to be drafted in J anuary, 2022, and 131 briefs already scheduled to be drafted in 3 February, 2022. Counsel asserts that the culmination of these factors, further evidenced in more 4 5 detail in the attached Declaration of Howard D. Olinsky, has created extraordinary circumstances 6 || due to the exigent circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Commissioner’s 7 || response. Wherefore, Plaintiff requests an extension from January 3, 2022 up to and including 8 January 31, 2022 to file her brief. Counsel for the Plaintiff has conferred with Defendant’s 9 Counsel who kindly consents to this request. 11 Dated this 27" day of December, 2021. 12 Respectfully submitted, +S /s/Hal Taylor 14 Hal Taylor, Esq. Of Counsel, Olinsky Law Group 15 NV Bar No.: 4399 2551 West Lakeridge Shores +e Reno, NV 89519 7 Tel: (775) 825-2223 Fax: (775) 329-1113 18 HalTaylorLawyer@GBIS.com 19 20 ORDER 21 IT IS SO ORDERED. DATED: December 27, 2021 23 24 bd wt. G, Cott 25 U.S. MAGISTRATE JUDGE 26 27 28