Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-azd-2_13-cv-02218/USCOURTS-azd-2_13-cv-02218-1/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 863
Nature of Suit: Social Security - DIWC/DIWW (405(g))
Cause of Action: 42:405 Review of HHS Decision (SSID)

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WO 

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 

Neil M. Heggem, 

Plaintiff, 

v. 

Carolyn W. Colvin, 

Defendant. 

No. CV-13-02218-PHX-JAT

ORDER 

 Pending before the Court is Plaintiff Neil M. Heggem’s motion for attorneys’ fees 

pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act (“EAJA”). (Doc. 33). The Court now rules on 

the motion. 

I. Background 

On June 24, 2013, an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) denied Plaintiff’s request 

for social security benefits. (Doc. 13 at 1). The Social Security Appeals Council denied 

review of the ALJ’s decision on August 31, 2013. (Id.) After Plaintiff filed an appeal for 

judicial review of the ALJ’s decision, this Court affirmed the ALJ’s decision. (Doc. 24). 

On March 23, 2015, Plaintiff filed an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the 

Ninth Circuit challenging this Court’s affirmance of the ALJ’s decision. (Doc. 26). On 

June 1, 2016, the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded for supplemental proceedings 

upon the Commissioner’s request for voluntary remand. (Doc. 30). 

II. Legal Standard 

The Ninth Circuit has succinctly stated the legal standard for an award of 

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attorneys’ fees under the EAJA as follows: 

 EAJA provides that a court shall award to a prevailing party other 

than the United States fees and other expenses incurred by that party in any 

civil action unless the court finds that the position of the United States was 

substantially justified or that special circumstances make an award unjust. 

It is the government’s burden to show that its position was substantially 

justified. Substantial justification means justified in substance or in the 

main—that is, justified to a degree that could satisfy a reasonable person. 

Put differently, the government’s position must have a reasonable basis 

both in law and fact. The position of the United States includes both the 

government’s litigation position and the underlying agency action giving 

rise to the civil action. Thus, if the government’s underlying position was 

not substantially justified, we must award fees and need not address 

whether the government’s litigation position was justified. 

Tobeler v. Colvin, 749 F.3d 830, 832 (9th Cir. 2014) (citations, quotation marks, and 

alterations omitted). 

 When awarding attorneys’ fees under the EAJA, the Court should reimburse the 

prevailing party only for those fees which are reasonably expended by that party’s 

counsel. See 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(2)(A). The prevailing party bears the burden of proving 

the reasonableness of his request through sufficiently detailed accounts of hours 

expended on particular tasks so that the Court can evaluate his application. See Hensley v. 

Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 437 (1983); see Neil v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec., 495 F. App’x 845, 

846 (9th Cir. 2012) (“A fee applicant should maintain billing records in a manner that 

enables a reviewing court to easily identify the hours reasonably expended.” (quotation 

omitted)). Generally, if the Court reduces a fee application it must provide a reason, 

however, “a district court can impose a reduction of up to 10 percent—a ‘haircut’—based 

purely on the exercise of its discretion and without more specific explanation.” Costa v. 

Comm’r of Soc. Sec., 690 F.3d 1132, 1135 (9th Cir. 2012) (citing Moreno v. City of 

Sacramento, 534 F.3d 1106, 1111 (9th Cir. 2008)).

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III. Analysis 

 Because the Commissioner concedes that her position was not substantially 

justified, see (Doc. 34 at 1), Plaintiff is entitled to an award of his reasonable attorneys’ 

fees pursuant to the EAJA. 

 As to the reasonableness of Plaintiff’s fee request, the Commissioner argues that 

Plaintiff should only be reimbursed for fees related to legal work and not fees involving 

clerical or secretarial work. (Doc. 34). The Commissioner identifies several instances in 

Plaintiff’s itemized statement of attorney hours in which Plaintiff’s counsel billed for 

“filing and docketing pleadings, receiving and/or reviewing notices or standard orders, 

and filing extensions of time.” (Id. at 3). The Commissioner further points out that 

Plaintiff’s counsel “block billed” on multiple occasions, “making it difficult to evaluate 

the reasonableness of the time entries on their face.” (Id.) As a result, the Commissioner 

requests that Plaintiff’s fee application be reduced “by at least $665.00 to account for 

clerical time that cannot be billed at an attorney rate.” (Id. at 3–4). 

 In reply, Plaintiff asserts that the Commissioner’s opposition to his motion for 

attorneys’ fees “is a waste of judicial resources” and suggests that the Court “should not 

opt to get involved in such minutia.” (Doc. 37 at 2). Plaintiff posits—without citing to 

any legal authority—that his “EAJA petition should have proceeded unopposed simply 

due to the amount in controversy.” (Id.) Accordingly, Plaintiff refused to “go into detail 

over every line item put in issue by the agency” because doing so would “not [be] a good 

use of the Court’s time.” (Id.) Plaintiff also postulates that “[f]ull briefing [on a motion 

for attorneys’ fees under the EAJA] is not a good use of resources, and the lack of full 

briefing is not a reflection of a lack of merit.” (Id. at 3). Ultimately, Plaintiff contends 

that should the Court reduce the amount of requested fees, it should “split the disputed 

amount between the parties” rather than “combing the record.” (Id.) 

 Notwithstanding Plaintiff’s advice to the contrary, the Court “combed through the 

record” as is required for all fee applications brought pursuant to the EAJA. See, e.g., 

Hensley, 461 U.S. at 433 (stating that a district court has an independent duty to 

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determine whether an attorneys’ fee award is reasonable); Moreno, 534 F.3d at 1111 (“A 

district court . . . awards only the fee that it deems reasonable.”). This task was not as 

daunting as Plaintiff inferred, as the relevant portion of the record—Plaintiff’s itemized 

statement of attorney hours—is a mere three pages long. See (Doc. 33-1 at 5–7). 

 Plaintiff bears the burden of establishing that his attorneys’ fees request is 

reasonable and does not include work that cannot be billed at an attorney rate. Here, the 

Court agrees with the Commissioner that Plaintiff’s counsel billed for non-attorney 

clerical work on several occasions. For example, Plaintiff’s counsel appeared to bill for 

“prepar[ing] and fil[ing]” every document Plaintiff filed in this case. See (Doc. 33-1 at 5–

7). Such work is not compensable at an attorney’s rate of billing. See Missouri v. Jenkins, 

491 U.S. 274, 288 n.10 (1989) (finding that clerical and secretarial tasks are non-legal 

work and are not compensable under attorney rates); Nadarajah v. Holder, 569 F.3d 906, 

921 (9th Cir. 2009) (holding that when clerical tasks such as filing, transcript, and 

document organization “are billed at hourly rates, the court should reduce the hours 

requested to account for the billing errors”). Unfortunately, due to Plaintiff’s counsel’s 

block billing, the Court is unable to determine exactly how much time counsel spent on 

each task. As the billed services span years 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, the Court in its 

discretion will subtract 0.2 hours for each 2013 and 2016 and 1.0 hour for each 2014 and 

2015. See Neil, 495 F. App’x at 847 (finding that district court acted within its discretion 

when it reduced the plaintiff’s fee award by 0.3 hours for an entry “that was vague and 

inadequately explained” and approving the district court’s 10% reduction for an entry that 

was block billed).1

 As a result, the Court will subtract 2.4 hours from Plaintiff’s fee 

application and will award Plaintiff his attorneys’ fees for 67.0 hours of attorney time.2

 

1

 The Court reduced a different amount per year because of the amount of billing 

entries for each year. The bulk of counsel’s billing entries occurred in 2014 and 2015. 

2

 The Court finds that Plaintiff is entitled to the cost-of-living adjustment to the 

statutory hourly rate pursuant to the EAJA and Thangaraja v. Gonzales, 428 F.3d 870, 

876–77 (9th Cir. 2005). Thus, Plaintiff will be awarded $12,733.82 based on his 

counsel’s 3.0 hours of work in 2013 at $187.02 per hour, 31.2 hours in 2014 at $190.06 

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IV. Conclusion 

Based on the foregoing, 

IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Application for Attorney Fees under the Equal 

Access to Justice Act, (Doc. 33), is GRANTED in the amount of $12,733.82. This award 

shall be made payable directly to Plaintiff and is subject to offset to satisfy any preexisting debt that Plaintiff owes the United States pursuant to Astrue v. Ratliff, 560 U.S. 

586 (2010). 

 Dated this 8th day of August, 2016. 

 

per hour, 31.6 hours during 2015 at $190.28 per hour, and 1.2 hours during the first half 

of 2016 at $191.70 per hour. See United States Courts for the Ninth Circuit, Equal Access 

to Justice Act–Rates, http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/content/view.php?pk_id=0000000039 

(last visited August 8, 2016). 

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