Moses v. Commissioner Social Security Administration ( 2023 )

1 CHAD HATFIELD Attorney at Law 2 Hatfield Law Office 8131 W Klamath Ct, Ste D 3 Kennewick, WA 99336 4 Telephone: (509) 378-3696 Attorney for Plaintiff 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF OREGON 7 PENDLETON DIVISION 8 NICHOLE MOSES, 9 10 Plaintiff, Case No. 2:22−cv−00645−MK 11 vs. 12 Acting Commissioner of the Social 13 Security Administration, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S PETITION FOR EAJA FEES 14 Defendant. 15 16 BEFORE THE COURT is Plaintiff’s motion for an award of attorney fees pursuant to the 17 Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. §2412. (Ct. Rec. 22.) Attorney CHAD 18 HATFIELD represents Plaintiff, United Stated Attorney for the District of Oregon, Natalie 19 Wight, Civil Division Chief, Kevin Danielson and Special Assistant United States Attorney 20 21 David Burdett, represent the Defendant. We have been in communication with the opposing 22 counsel and have made some changes per his request. 23 On April 11,2023, this Court issued its PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY 24 JUDGMENT/ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT 25 (Ct. Rec. 20/21). Plaintiff now moves for an award of attorney fees pursuant to EAJA (Ct. Rec. 26 27 22.) 28 1 The EAJA provides for an award of attorney fees to private litigants who both prevail in 2 civil actions (other than tort) against the United States and timely file a petition for fees. 28 3 U.S.C. §2412(d)(2)(A). Under the EAJA, the court shall award attorney fees to the prevailing 4 party unless it finds the government’s position was “substantially justified or that special 5 circumstances make such an award unjust.” 28 U.S.C. §2412(d)(1)(A). 6 7 Plaintiff seeks attorney fees of $7,212.96 based on an attorney fee rate of $234.95 per 8 hour for 22.4 hours in 2022, $234.95 per hour for 8.3 hours worked in 2023. Accordingly, after 9 review, 10 IT IS ORDERED: 11 (1) The Plaintiff’s Motion (Ct. Rec. 23.) is GRANTED. The Commissioner is 12 13 directed to pay Plaintiff EAJA fees of $7,212.96. 14 (2) The award to plaintiff shall be delivered or otherwise transmitted to plaintiff’s 15 attorney of record. Address for the attorney for the Plaintiff: 16 Chad Hatfield 17 8131 W Klamath Ct, Ste D Kennewick, WA 99336 18 (3) EAJA fees, expenses, and costs are subject to any offsets allowed under the 19 20 Treasury Offset Program (TOP), as discussed recently in Astrue v. Ratliff, U.S. 21 (2010), 130 S. Ct. 2521, 2522 (2010). No costs or expenses are awarded. 22 (4) The District Court Executive is directed to file this Order, provide a copy to 23 plaintiff as the prevailing party, plaintiff’s counsel, and defendant’s counsel, and CLOSE the 24 file. 25 26 IT IS SO ORDERED. 27 DATED this 14th day of ___J_u_ly_____ , 2023. 28 1 ________/s_/M__u_s_t_af_a_ _T_. _K_a_s_u_b_h_a_i_________ 2 MUSTAFA T. KASUBHAI UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28