Richard Torrez v. Michael J. Astrue, No. 2:2009cv03999 - Document 23 (C.D. Cal. 2010)
Court Description: MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS PETITION FOR APPROVAL OF EAJA FEES by Magistrate Judge Oswald Parada: For the reasons discussed above, Plaintiffs Petition is GRANTED, and Plaintiffs counsel is awarded total EAJA fees of $3,595.12. 17 (am) Modified on 7/21/2010 (am).
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Richard Torrez v. Michael J. Astrue Doc. 23 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 RICHARD TORREZ, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) vs. ) ) MICHAEL J. ASTRUE, ) Commissioner of Social Security, ) ) Defendant. ) Case No. CV 09-3999-OP MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF S PETITION FOR APPROVAL OF EAJA FEES 17 I. 18 PROCEEDINGS 19 On February 25, 2010, Richard Torrez ( Plaintiff ) filed a Petition for 20 Attorney Fees and Expenses Under the Equal Access to Justice Act ( Petition ). 21 Plaintiff is seeking a fee award in the amount of $3,713.72, consisting of 15.5 22 hours of attorney time at a rate of $172.24 per hour, and 8.7 hours of paralegal 23 time at a rate of $120.00 per hour. (Pet. at 4.) Plaintiff also is seeking an 24 additional $632.12 for preparation of the Reply (3.67 attorney hours). (Reply at 25 8.) Thus, the total amount requested is $4,345.84. (Id.) On April 21, 2010, 26 Respondent filed an Opposition to the Petition. On April 27, 2010, Plaintiff filed 27 a Reply. 28 In the Reply, Plaintiff indicated that [i]n the spirit of compromise, he 1 Dockets.Justia.com 1 would stipulate to reducing the total attorney time by three hours and paralegal 2 time by one hour. (Reply at 8.) Plaintiff calculates the resulting fee (including the 3 time spent on preparing the Reply) to be $3,709.00 (16.17 attorney hours x 4 $172.24; 7.7 paralegal hours x $120). (Reply at 3.) 5 II. 6 DISCUSSION 7 A. Legal Standard. 8 The Equal Access to Justice Act ( EAJA ) provides in pertinent part: 9 Except as otherwise specifically provided by statute, a court shall 10 award to a prevailing party other than the United States fees and other 11 expenses . . . incurred by that party in any civil action (other than cases 12 sounding in tort), including proceedings for judicial review of agency 13 action, brought by or against the United States in any court having 14 jurisdiction of that action, unless the court finds that the position of the 15 United States was substantially justified or that special circumstances 16 make an award unjust. 17 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A). To award attorney s fees under the EAJA, the Court 18 must determine that: (1) the claimant was the prevailing party; (2) the government 19 has failed to show that its position was substantially justified or that special 20 circumstances make the award unjust; and (3) the requested fees and costs are 21 reasonable. Id. §§ 2412(d)(1)(A), 2412(d)(2)(A). 22 B. The Requested Fees Are Reasonable. 23 The Commissioner does not contest the hourly rate that counsel claims, but 24 only disputes the reasonableness of the hours billed. He claims that the time spent 25 was excessive considering the following factors: (1) Mr. LaTour s experience 26 (Mr. LaTour personally billed up to 8.5 hours of file review, issue identification, 27 and possibly settlement proposal review (Pet. Ex. 2)); (2) the fact the medical 28 record consisted only of 75 pages; (3) Mr. LaTour s review was duplicative of the 2 1 review conducted by the attorney who prepared the settlement proposal; (4) and 2 the issues were not complex. (Opp n at 4-5.) Specifically, the Commissioner 3 claims the duplicative work in the matter warrants a seven-hour reduction in 4 attorney time. The Commissioner also contends that many of the paralegal tasks 5 completed were purely clerical or secretarial tasks. (Id. at 5-6.) Specifically, he 6 asserts that half of the time billed by the paralegal fell into that category and, 7 therefore, only 260 minutes should be allowed. (Id. at 6.) In total, therefore, the 8 Commissioner argues Plaintiff should be awarded no more than $1,986.00 in 9 EAJA fees, and that the Court should disallow any fees for time spent on the 10 Reply. (Id. at 7.) 11 This Court has reviewed the settlement proposal prepared by counsel. 12 (Opp n Ex. 1.) It contains three issues which appear to be thoroughly analyzed 13 and presented, with accompanying record cites and legal analysis. The Court finds 14 that the time counsel spent researching and preparing the settlement proposal 15 (seven hours) was justified and reasonable. Because the Plaintiff has agreed to 16 reduce the total attorney hours by three hours (Reply at 8), the Court need not 17 decide whether the eight hours billed by Mr. LaTour were excessive or 18 duplicative, as it finds that 5.5 hours was not. Thus, total attorney time allowed 19 before the Reply, is 12.5 hours, for a total billing of $2,153.00 (12.5 x $172.24). 20 Plaintiff also seeks an additional $682.84 for preparation of the Reply.1 21 (Reply at 8.) A prevailing party under the EAJA is entitled to fees for the 22 litigation over the fees. Comm r, INS v. Jean, 496 U.S. 154, 160, 110 S. Ct. 2316, 23 110 L. Ed. 2d 989 (9th Cir. 1998). Having reviewed the EAJA briefings, the 24 Court finds that this fee request is also reasonable. Thus, total attorney billing 25 allowed amounts to $2,835.24. 26 27 1 This is based on 3.17 hours in attorney time at $172.24 per hour. (Reply 28 at 7.) 3 1 With regard to the total paralegal time of 7.7 hours (after deducting one 2 hour as stipulated to by Plaintiff),2 the Court has reviewed the services provided 3 and determines that a further reduction is warranted. Specifically, the 160 total 4 minutes billed on October 12, 2009 ( final proofread, edit settlement 5 proposal/email ), December 23, 2009 ( review memorandum/judgment - notify 6 client ), and January 19, 2010 ( file review, prepare itemization schedules, rough 7 and final EAJA request drafts, email to AUSA, OGC; prepare stipulation for 8 efiling ) contain some elements that might be deemed purely clerical. The Court 9 allocates sixty minutes of this time to non-clerical tasks. Thus, the revised 10 paralegal time is 400 minutes for a total allowed billing of $800.00 ((520 - 60 11 60)/60) x $120). 12 Accordingly, the Court finds that an EAJA fee award of $3,595.12 13 ($2,835.24 + $800.00) is reasonable, as required under the EAJA. 14 III. 15 ORDER 16 For the reasons discussed above, Plaintiff s Petition is GRANTED, and 17 Plaintiff s counsel is awarded total EAJA fees of $3,595.12. 18 19 20 DATED: July 20, 2010 21 HONORABLE OSWALD PARADA United States Magistrate Judge 22 23 24 25 26 27 2 Plaintiff agreed to reduce the time billed for form preparation, and 28 withdraw the claim for preparation of the consent form (10 minutes). (Reply at 8.) 4
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