Gurule v. O'Malley ( 2024 )

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 Lisa Marie Gurule 11 12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 13 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 14 15 LISA MARIE GURULE, ) Case No.: 2:24-cv-01078-EJY ) 16 Plaintiff, ) STIPULATION AND PROPOSED ) ORDER FOR THE AWARD AND 17 vs. ) PAYMENT OF ATTORNEY FEES ) AND EXPENSES PURSUANT TO 18 MARTIN O'MALLEY, ) THE EQUAL ACCESS TO JUSTICE Commissioner of Social Security, ) ACT, 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d) AND 19 ) COSTS PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. § Defendant. ) 1920 20 ) ) 21 22 TO THE HONORABLE ELAYNA J. YOUCHAH, MAGISTRATE JUDGE 23 OF THE 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 Lisa Marie Gurule 26 (“Gurule”) be awarded attorney fees in the amount of SIXTY ONE HUNDRED 1 dollars ($6,100.00) under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2 2412(d), and no costs under 28 U.S.C. § 1920. This amount represents 3 compensation for all legal services rendered on behalf of Plaintiff by counsel in 4 connection with this civil action, in accordance with 28 U.S.C. §§ 1920; 2412(d). 5 After the Court issues an order for EAJA fees to Gurule, the government 6 will consider the matter of Gurule's assignment of EAJA fees to Marc Kalagian. 7 The retainer agreement containing the assignment is attached as exhibit 1. 8 Pursuant to Astrue v. Ratliff, 130 S.Ct. 2521, 2529 (2010), the ability to honor the 9 assignment will depend on whether the fees are subject to any offset allowed under 10 the United States Department of the Treasury's Offset Program. After the order for 11 EAJA fees is entered, the government will determine whether they are subject to 12 any offset. 13 Fees shall be made payable to Gurule, but if the Department of the Treasury 14 determines that Gurule does not owe a federal debt, then the government shall 15 cause the payment of fees, expenses and costs to be made directly to Law Offices 16 of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, pursuant to the assignment executed by 17 Gurule.1 Any payments made shall be delivered to Law Offices of Lawrence D. 18 Rohlfing, Inc., CPC. Counsel agrees that any payment of costs may be made either 19 by electronic fund transfer (ETF) or by check. 20 This stipulation constitutes a compromise settlement of Gurule's request for 21 EAJA attorney fees, and does not constitute an admission of liability on the part of 22 Defendant under the EAJA or otherwise. Payment of the agreed amount shall 23 constitute a complete release from, and bar to, any and all claims that Gurule 24 25 1 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 and/or Marc Kalagian including Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, 2 may have relating to EAJA attorney fees in connection with this action. 3 This award is without prejudice to the rights of Marc Kalagian and/or the 4 Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, to seek Social Security Act 5 attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b), subject to the savings clause provisions of 6 the EAJA. 7 DATE: November 8, 2024 Respectfully submitted, 8 LAW OFFICES OF LAWRENCE D. ROHLFING, INC., CPC 9 /s/ Marc V. Kalagian BY: __________________ 10 Marc V. Kalagian Attorney for plaintiff 11 LISA MARIE GURULE 12 DATE: November 8, 2024 JASON M. FRIERSON 13 United States Attorney 14 15 /s/ David Priddy 16 DAVID PRIDDY Special Assistant United States Attorney 17 Attorneys for Defendant MARTIN O'MALLEY, Commissioner of Social 18 Security (Per e-mail authorization) 19 ORDER 20 Approved and so ordered. 21 DATE: November 12, 2024 22 23 ___________________________________ 24 THE HONORABLE ELAYNA J. YOUCHAH UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 25 26