A recent Law 360 story by Kevin Penton, “Fed Circ. Won’t Let Attys Get Fees From Feds on Vet’s Behalf,” reports that attorneys lack standing under federal law to sue the federal government on their own to recover fees for work they performed on behalf of a veteran, the Federal Circuit held in a precedential opinion.  The appellate panel rejected arguments by attorneys Meghan Gentile and Harold H. Hoffman III of the nonprofit Veterans Legal Advocacy Group that they could collect over $4,000 in fees after their former client, Matthew Shealey, prevailed in his case, even though he had fired them and had opposed their attempt to collect the money.

The Federal Circuit noted that in a 2010 case known as Astrue v. Ratliff, the U.S. Supreme Court held that under the Equal Access to Justice Act, the “prevailing party” is the actual party in a case, not the individual’s attorneys.  “The fact that the statute awards to the prevailing party fees in which [its] attorney may have a beneficial interest or a contractual right does not establish that the statute ‘awards’ the fees directly to the attorney,” the Federal Circuit said, quoting the Supreme Court.

The Federal Circuit also rejected an alternative argument by Gentile and Hoffman that they had a right to the money under the fee agreement that they had inked with Shealey, as “the fee agreement on its face does not purport to assign Mr. Shealey’s [Equal Access to Justice Act] claim to intervenors, and the intervenors expressly disclaimed such a theory at oral argument.”  The appellate panel also rejected the argument that the attorneys had so-called third party standing to sue for fees on their former client’s behalf, as Shealey revoked his authorization for them to apply for the fees and costs, according to the opinion.

“The interests of a client such as Mr. Shealey — including the ability to resolve their fee claim by settlement with the government and the ability to decline pursuing an [Equal Access to Justice Act] claim at all — would be impaired if their attorneys were afforded standing to file a claim on their behalf when that authority has been revoked,” the Federal Circuit wrote.