Knighten v. Social Security Administration

Filing 21

ORDER granting 19 Motion for Attorney Fees in the amount of $6,650.00, payable to plaintiff. Signed by Judge Susan Webber Wright on 4/3/2018. (jak)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS
JONESBORO DIVISION
SPENCER KNIGHTEN, JR.
V.

PLAINTIFF

NO. 3:17CV00207-SWW

NANCY A. BERRYHILL,
Acting Commissioner,
Social Security Administration

DEFENDANT
ORDER

Before the Court is a motion [doc.#19] of plaintiff Spencer Knighten, Jr.–the
prevailing party in this social security case–for an award of attorney’s fees
pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) in the amount of $9,424.00,
representing 49.60 hours at an hourly rate of $190.00. The Commissioner does
not object to the hourly rate but does object to the hours plaintiff’s counsel is
claiming. She states that an appropriate EAJA award would be no more that
$4,750.00, representing 25 hours at an hourly rate of $190.00, payable to plaintiff.
See Astrue v. Ratliff, 130 S.Ct. 2521 (2010) (EAJA fees are payable to plaintiff, not
plaintiff’s attorney, and such fees are subject to an offset when the plaintiff has
pre-existing debt that plaintiff owes the United States); McCarty v. Astrue, No.
4:11-cv-00022, 2012 WL 2571229, at *3 (E.D. Ark. July 2, 2012) (the usual time
claimed in cases involving issues that are not particularly complex or novel is 15 to
20 hours).

After review of the itemization of hours in this case, the Court finds that an
award of attorney’s fees in the amount of $6,650.00, representing 35 hours at the
hourly rate of $190.00, is reasonable. Cf. Curtis v. Colvin, No. 4:14-cv-00627
(E.D. Ark., March 21, 2016) (this Court in a similar case awarded attorney fees in
the unopposed amount of $7,005.15, representing 7.35 hours at $186.00 per hour
and 30.15 hours at $187.00 per hour).
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that plaintiff’s motion [doc.#19] for an
award of attorney’s fees is granted in the amount of $6,650.00, payable to plaintiff.
Dated this 3rd day of April, 2018.

/s/Susan Webber Wright
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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