The Supreme Court recently held in Richlin Security Service Co. v. Chertoff that fees are available for paralegal assistant time under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), which requires the federal government to pay attorney fees for those who sue the federal government when it is determined that the government's position was not substantially justified. This raises the question of what rate is available for paralegal assistant time. The Alaska Employment Law blog tells us that the government did not object to a $95 hourly rate for paralegals in Onstead v. Astrue, 2008 WL 2065252 (D.Alaska May 13, 2008).
What a surprise, the Supreme Court (9 lawyers) ruled in favor of lawyers.
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