Scarborough v. Principi
Scarborough applied under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) for attorney's fees after winning a suit against the Department of Veteran's Affairs. The EAJA grants attorney's fees to any party who prevails in litigation against the federal government, provided that an application showing four required factors is filed within thirty days of final judgment. Scarborough's initial application failed to include the fourth factor, and by the time he amended his application to include it, the thirty-day filing window had passed. The Veteran's Court dismissed Scarborough's application, and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed, finding that all four requirements must be included in the application within the thirty-day period for attorney's fees to be awarded.
Question Presented:
Whether, or in what circumstances, an applicant for attorney's fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act is barred from obtaining a fee award by the Act's thirty-day statute of limitations solely
because the applicant's timely-filed fee application did not initially allege that the position of the government in the underlying litigation lacked substantial justification.
