I’m going to give John S. Winkler & Lynne A. Price, Docket No. 25989-22, filed 8/20/24, a Taishoff  “Invention Class Honorable Mention” for John’s careful papering of his bid for his own Section 7430 legals and admins. Judge Travis A. (“Tag”) Greaves does toss John’s bid for legals notwithstanding.

Immediately upon receipt of the SNOD, “… Husband, in his capacity as attorney, sent himself and Wife a client engagement letter for his legal services. After respondent later conceded that petitioners actually owed no deficiency… Husband sent Wife an invoice for $6,147 for legal services rendered and a court filing fee paid during the dispute. On the same day, both Husband, in his attorney capacity, and Wife, in her petitioner capacity, submitted a Motion for Reasonable Litigation or Administrative Costs (Motion), requesting $6,087 in attorney’s fees and $60 for the Court’s filing fee. Days later, Wife wrote Husband a check for the amount indicated in the invoice” Order, at pp. 1-2. (Footnote omitted, but it says the check is attached to John’s motion to supplement his claim).

Ol’ Joe Alfred Izen, Jr., would be proud to welcome John to the Inventors’ Club. See my blogpost “The $2000 Misunderstanding,” 6/12/12, for Joe’s story.

Meantime, Judge Tag Greaves slams the door on John’s invention.

“In determining whether a fee was incurred, pro se petitioners cannot recover the costs of their own time. There are several reasons to justify this restriction. First, an individual appears before the Court as a petitioner or as an attorney—not both. In other words, there is no difference between pro se petitioner attorneys and pro see petitioner non-attorneys; in either instance a person may fill the role of attorney or petitioner. Second, to incur an expense, one must have liability to pay it. Critically, one does not have liability to pay one’s own self back.

“The restriction against collecting for one’s own labor is true when a petitioner-attorney represents his spouse as well.” Order, at pp. 2-3. (Citations omitted).

But John does win one: he gets the Sixty Georges.

Admins aren’t like legals; you can flunk one of the tests for legals (like unreasonably protracting the proceedings or not exhausting administrative remedies) and still get admins, as long as you substantially prevailed.

And it doesn’t matter if you hired counsel or were self-represented, you still paid those costs. If you got legals, part of the award would include some or all of the admins.

“Here, respondent only contends that petitioners unreasonably protracted the proceedings. However, even if that were so, we find that they may nonetheless be awarded the $60 court filing fee.” Order, at p. 4.