SAM A. CROW, Senior District Judge.
Plaintiff filed an application for attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2412 (EAJA) (Doc. 23). The motion has been fully briefed by the parties.
The EAJA provides for an award of attorney fees to a prevailing party in a suit against the United States unless the court finds that the position of the United States was substantially justified or that special circumstances make an award unjust.
The Commissioner bears the burden to show that his position was substantially justified.
Plaintiff is requesting attorney's fees for 50.1 hours at a rate of $191.39 an hour, for a total of $9,588.63 (this includes an additional 2.5 hours for work on the EAJA motion). Defendant argues that this is unreasonable, and should be reduced, but does not suggest a reasonable figure. Defendant also takes issue with the vague nature of the billing statement of plaintiff's counsel, which for example, on September 27, 2015 lumps together 8.5 hours to read record, research and write brief (Doc. 23-2 at 3). As noted above, the party seeking the fees has the burden to show that the hourly rate and the number of hours is reasonable.
As this court has indicated in the past, the typical EAJA fee application in social security cases is between 30 and 40 hours. Thus, courts in this district have not hesitated to disallow hours over 40 as unreasonable in routine EAJA social security cases.
The court has carefully reviewed the briefs and issues raised by the parties in this case, and notes that numerous issues were raised by plaintiff in her brief. Plaintiff's counsel spent 32.45 hours writing his initial brief, and 11.75 hours writing the reply brief. In light of the issues raised in this case, the court finds that 28 hours was reasonably expended by plaintiff's counsel in the writing of the initial brief, and 8 hours was reasonably expended by plaintiff's counsel in the writing of the reply brief. The court will add 2.5 hours for time plaintiff's counsel spent to respond to the EAJA objection by the defendant.
In summary, the court finds that 41.9 hours was reasonably expended in presenting this case to the court. Therefore, a reasonable attorney's fee pursuant to the EAJA is $8,019.24 (41.9 hours × 191.39 per hour). Defendant did not oppose plaintiff's request for reimbursement of the filing fee; therefore, it will be granted as an uncontested motion.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that plaintiff's motion for attorney fees pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act (Doc. 23) is granted in part, and the Commissioner is ordered to pay plaintiff an attorney fee in the amount of $8,019.24.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that plaintiff's motion for reimbursement of the filing fee in the amount of $400.00 is granted. The Commissioner is ordered to pay plaintiff $400.00 for the costs of this action from the Judgement Fund administered by the United States Treasury Department.