The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit struck down two Social Security Administration rules it said prevented law firms from collecting fees in disability cases, a move praised by nonprofit legal organizations as ensuring access to justice for low-income individuals.
The court issued a decision Friday in a case brought by Rhode Island-based law firm Marasco & Nesselbush over what the firm called “byzantine and irrational” rules surrounding attorney fee collections. In agency proceedings, the SSA will pay at least some of an legal fees from funds it withholds from the claimants’ past-due benefits, but Marasco & Nesselbush challenged a pair of regulations that made collecting around $70,000 in earnings impossible for the firm.
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