Kellems v. Astrue, No. 09-10676

Equal Access to Justice Act Attorney's Fees Issue

In Kellems v. Astrue, No. 09-10676, the court vacated plaintiff's appeal from the denial of social security benefits, the district court's order awarding attorney's fees to plaintiff, where a federal court may not order an award of attorney's fees for work performed before a federal agency pursuant to 42 U.S.C. section 406(a) to be offset by an award of attorney's fees for work performed before a federal court pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act.

As the court wrote:  "In this social security case, we are asked to decide whether a federal court may order an attorney to remit to his client an award of attorney's fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (the "EAJA") as an offset against fees awarded to the attorney pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 406(a) for work before the Social Security Administration. This appeal was stayed pending our decision in Rice v. Astrue, 609 F.3d 831 (5th Cir. 2010)."

Related Resources

• Read the Fifth Circuit's Decision in Kellems v. Astrue, No. 09-10676