Christine Johnson v. Michael Astrue

MEMORANDUM

Real-party-in-interest Richard E. Donaldson appeals the district court’s order granting a reduced attorney’s fees award after he successfully represented Christine Johnson in her claim for Social Security benefits. We have jurisdiction over this appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review a district court’s award of attorney’s fees for abuse of discretion. Crawford v. Astrue, 586 F.3d 1142,1146-47 (9th Cir.2009) (en banc). Having reviewed the record and the parties’ briefs on appeal, we vacate the district court’s fee award and remand.

District courts are authorized to order payment of “a reasonable fee for ... representation, not in excess of 25 percent of the total of past-due benefits” following successful representation of Social Security benefit claimants. 42 U.S.C. § 406 (b)(1)(A). When awarding fees, district courts are to look first to the contingent-fee agreement, and then independently “review for reasonableness [the] fees yielded by those agreements.” Gisbrecht v. Barnhart, 535 U.S. 789, 808-09 , 122 S.Ct. 1817 , 152 L.Ed.2d 996 (2002) (directing lower courts to consider “the character of the representation and the results the representative achieved”…