A claimant may appoint an individual, attorney or non-attorney, to represent him/her
in matters before SSA. A representative who wants to charge or collect a fee for services
provided in any proceeding before SSA under the Social Security Act must first obtain
SSA's authorization, except when the conditions described in GN 03920.010 are present.
The representative must use one of two mutually exclusive fee authorization processes:
the fee petition process or the fee agreement process (i.e., SSA will authorize a
fee(s) to a claimant's representative(s) under only one of the two fee processes).
This subchapter contains policies and general procedures that pertain to both the
fee petition and the fee agreement processes. It discusses fees SSA authorizes for
services provided at the administrative level, as well as additional fees a Federal
court may authorize for services provided at the court level.
For a general overview of representation and representative's fees, see GN 03910.001. For policies and specific procedures that apply particularly to either the fee petition
or the fee agreement process, see respectively, GN 03930.000 or GN 03940.000. For information and instructions about fee violations by representatives, see GN 03970.000.