Sec. 7. Legal fee payment program
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The Black Lung Benefits Act ( 30 U.S.C. 901 et seq. ) is amended by inserting after section 403, as added by section 3, the following: Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of the Black Lung Health Improvements Act of 2013 , the Secretary shall establish an attorneys' fee payment program to pay attorneys' fees, using amounts from the fund, on behalf of claimants in qualifying claims. A qualifying claim for purposes of this section is a contested claim for benefits under this title for which a final judgment has not been entered within 1 year of the filing of the claim.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, amounts in the fund shall be available for payments authorized by the Secretary under the program under this section. If a claimant for benefits is a prevailing party on a qualifying claim before an administrative law judge, the Benefits Review Board, or a Federal court, and the judge, Board, or court approves attorneys’ fees for work done before it, the Secretary shall, through the program under this section, pay an amount of attorneys' fees not to exceed $1,500 at each stage of the administrative and legal process.
The program established under this section shall not pay more than a total of $4,500 in attorneys' fees for any single qualifying claim. In any case where a qualifying claim results in a final order for compensation, the employer subject to such claim shall reimburse the fund for any payments made under this section on behalf of the claimant, subject to enforcement by the Secretary under section 424 and in the same manner as compensation orders are enforced under section 21(d) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act (33 U.S.C. 921(d)).
Nothing in this section shall limit or otherwise affect an employer’s liability for any attorneys' fees awarded by an administrative law judge, the Benefits Review Board, or a Federal court, that were not paid by the program under this section. Nothing in this section shall limit or otherwise affect the ability to use amounts provided through the fund to pay approved attorneys' fees in claims for benefits under this title for which a final judgment has been ordered, in cases where the employer is unable to do so.
Any payment for attorneys' fees made by the Secretary under the program under this section shall not be recouped from the claimant or the claimant’s attorney. .
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