High Court Recently Hears Arguments in Astrue v. Ratliff.
In our October 1, 2009 post, we reported that the U.S. Supreme Court had accepted review of Astrue v. Ratliff, an Eighth Circuit decision. The issue for consideration was whether Social Security disability fee awards belong to clients, rather than their attorneys, so as to be subject to offsets for payment of debts owed to the government by clients.
Marcia Coyle, in her February 23, 2010 article “High Justices May Favor Clients Over Lawyers in Fee Shift Dispute” posted on The National Law Journal website, suggests that the majority of justices seemed to lean in favor of the position that the fee awards belong to the client in recent oral arguments in Astrue v. Ratliff. For example, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg appeared skeptical that attorneys could reap the benefit of the fee awards because, unlike other federal statutes, the Equal Access to Justice Act does not exempt fee payments from being subject to offsets. Stay tuned, it is likely that a decision will be rendered before the end of this year.