Lucretia Burkard v. Commissioner of Social Securit

MEMORANDUM

Tim Wilborn, the attorney of record for Lucretia Burkard and the real-party-in-interest, appeals from the district court’s order granting in part his motion for attorney’s fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406 (b) based on a contingent-fee agreement with Bur-kard. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review for an abuse of discretion, Crawford v. Astrue, 586 F.3d 1142, 1147 (9th Cir.2009) (en banc), and we affirm.

The district court did not abuse its discretion by reducing the fees from the percentage specified in Wilborn’s fee agreement based on the court’s assessment, under the appropriate legal standard, of what fees were reasonable given the risk and complexity involved in this case. See id. at 1152-53 (explaining that courts should assess the complexity and risk involved in the specific case at issue, rather than social security cases in general, when analyzing the reasonableness of the requested fees); see also Gisbrecht v. Barnhart, 535 U.S. 789, 808 , 122 S.Ct. 1817 , 152 L.Ed.2d 996 (2002) (“Judges of our district courts are accustomed to making reasonableness determinations in a wide variety of contexts, and their assessments in such matters, in the event…