From Bloomberg:
An attorney who won disability insurance benefits for his client isn’t entitled to the fees the Social Security Administration designated for his work before a federal court, because his 26-month delay in requesting them wasn’t reasonable, the First Circuit said.
Jose Pais was denied benefits by the SSA in 2014. In 2018, a federal district court ruled in Pais’ favor and remanded the case to the SSA, which then decided Pais was entitled to benefits.
Pais and his lawyer had signed a contingent-fee agreement. The SSA therefore sent Pais a notice of award in June 2019, saying that his lawyer was entitled under federal law to fees of up to $29,159, representing 25% of the recovered benefits.
The lawyer promptly submitted a claim to SSA for over $7,000 for the work he did in administrative proceedings, but didn’t submit a claim for his work before the district court until August 2021.
The district court rejected the lawyer’s excuses and said that the delay was unreasonable under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b).
There is not fixed time under the Social Security law for an attorney to file a motion for fees, the opinion by Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said. But there is a circuit split over which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure applies to the request, Thompson said.
The Tenth Circuit applies Rule 60, under which parties have a “reasonable time” to move for “relief from a final judgment, order, or proceeding.” But the Second, Third, Fifth, and Eleventh circuits apply Rule 54(d)(2), which says that unless a statute or court order says otherwise, a motion for attorneys’ fees must “be filed no later than 14 days after the entry of judgment.”
Agreeing with the Tenth Circuit, the First Circuit said that the SSA never hands down a notice of award within 14 days of a district court’s judgment, which makes rigid application of Rule 54(d)(2) impossible. It also noted that some of the circuits that apply Rule 54(d)(2) toll the 14 days to the date the SSA issues a notice of award. ...
What I want to know is how long it took Social Security to act on the fee petition. This delay may not be as bad as it seems.
4 comments:
"What I want to know is how long it took Social Security to act on the fee petition. This delay may not be as bad as it seems."
He obviously sat on the 406(b) motion. We don't know why he prioritized the fee petition over the 406(b) fee, since there is nothing stopping you from filing both the fee petition and the 406(b) motion at once if you want both.
My money is on this attorney having no idea what he was doing, and then trying to dig his way out of not getting paid by begging the federal court to pay him. Which is obviously a bad plan.
"You get what you get and you don't throw a fit" What my kiddos kindergarten teacher preaches.
Time counselor. There is a thing called statute of limitations in other courts. Ask for your money earlier.
Anyone else think it is a little bit Alice in Wonderlandish that it conceivably took around 10 years from the claimant’s initial app. to his receipt of benefits and that it took approximately 4 years for the federal district court to grant relief (probably 6 to 12 months of that was briefing) that the attorney wasn’t paid due to “unreasonable delay”? FWIW I’m not an appointed rep./attorney.
@8:22 AM Yes in a way. But submitting the 406(b) petition is completely within the attorney's control, and when you know to do it, doesn't take much effort.
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