Equal Access to Justice Act: Use at Selected Labor and Employment Agencies

Overview

The GAO reviewed Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) awards reported to the Administrative Conference of the United States for fiscal years 2019–2025 and found that agencies reported substantial annual EAJA activity across the federal government (about $116 million and ~15,000 awards on average per year). Among the three labor and employment agencies GAO examined, the Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) each reported 11 awards (totaling about $547,601 and $436,913, respectively) while the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported no awards for that period. Stakeholders GAO interviewed described both benefits (helping clients afford cases) and persistent challenges (meeting EAJA eligibility criteria and demonstrating a “prevailing party”). For contractors and firms practicing labor, employment, or administrative law, this means increased attention to EAJA exposure, documentation practices, and recovery strategies when litigating or defending matters involving DOL, NLRB, EEOC, and similar agencies. Immediate action is needed to inventory current cases, update intake and documentation processes, and ensure capture and proposal teams account for potential EAJA-related cost and risk. See related guidance in the Winning Federal Contracts Guide and our compliance resources for legal services.

Immediate Actions (This Week)

• [ ] Inventory active and recent administrative/civil matters involving DOL, NLRB, or EEOC and flag cases with potential EAJA exposure or eligibility.
• [ ] Update intake and litigation intake checklists to capture EAJA-specific data points (e.g., party type, fee counsel, case outcome criteria relevant to “prevailing party”).
• [ ] Notify finance and contracts leads to expect potential fee awards or recoveries reported by ACUS and to track EAJA-related transactions in accounting codes.
• [ ] Subscribe to Cabrillo Signals War Room alerts for follow‑up GAO/ACUS updates and agency notices relevant to EAJA activity.
• [ ] Schedule a short legal-team review to assess whether current case documentation demonstrates the elements commonly required to establish EAJA eligibility.

Short-Term Actions (30 Days)

• [ ] Create an EAJA decision checklist for attorneys that codifies the common eligibility elements and documentation standards cited by stakeholders (e.g., prevailing-party evidence, fee timeliness).
• [ ] Configure saved searches and alerts in Cabrillo Signals Intelligence Hub to watch DOL, NLRB, EEOC reports and ACUS filings for new EAJA data or guidance.
• [ ] Train intake staff and outside counsel on the updated EAJA intake fields and on capturing fee statutes/records necessary for future fee petitions.
• [ ] Review historical matter files to identify any missed opportunities to assert or defend EAJA claims; document lessons learned.

Long-Term Actions (90+ Days)

• [ ] Integrate EAJA exposure assessment into capture and pricing models for opportunities that anticipate litigation or administrative enforcement with labor/employment agencies.
• [ ] Establish a recurring audit process to reconcile agency‑reported EAJA awards (ACUS data) against your firm’s accounting and case records.
• [ ] Maintain an internal repository of precedent EAJA fee petitions, notices of award/denial, and appellate outcomes to inform future eligibility assessments and proposals.
• [ ] Re-evaluate EAJA procedures whenever ACUS, GAO, or the named agencies publish new reporting guidance or when court law affecting “prevailing party” is summarized in future GAO/agency notices.

Compliance Checklist

Compliance scope TBD — re-evaluate when official guidance is published.

• [ ] Documented EAJA eligibility assessment for each qualifying matter (criteria, evidence, contemporaneous records).
• [ ] Fee petition templates and supporting time/expense records stored and versioned for audit.
• [ ] Accounting codes and reporting tags for EAJA awards and recoveries.
• [ ] Regular reconciliation between case files and any agency/ACUS-reported award data.

Resources

• Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) — official statutory and regulatory texts (search government sources for the statute and implementing guidance).
• ACUS EAJA reports (search the Administrative Conference of the United States website for agency submissions).
• GAO report GAO-26-108644 summary and tables (search GAO site for the full GAO product).
• Agency sites: DOL, NLRB, EEOC — check each agency’s public pages for litigation/fee guidance and EAJA reporting.
• Internal Cabrillo resources:
• Winning Federal Contracts Guide (/insights/winning-federal-contracts)
• CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) Compliance Guide (/insights/cmmc-compliance-guide)
• CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information)-Safe CRM Guide (/insights/cui-safe-crm-guide)

How Cabrillo Club Automates This

• Cabrillo Signals War Room — Already detected this event and delivered this briefing within minutes. For subscribers, War Room continuously monitors GAO releases, ACUS filings, and agency notices so you receive immediate alerts when EAJA-related reporting or guidance is published. War Room also surfaces summaries and severity ratings so legal and capture leaders can prioritize follow-up without manual searching.
• Cabrillo Signals Match Engine — When EAJA activity changes the competitive or risk profile for opportunities (for example, higher agency EAJA payments or shifting litigation risk at DOL or NLRB), the Match Engine automatically rescales opportunity match scores and raises relevance on pipeline items that align with labor and employment legal services. This helps bids and pursuits reflect updated risk margins and capture prioritization.
• Cabrillo Signals Intelligence Hub — Use the Intelligence Hub to track affected agencies (DOL, NLRB, EEOC), NAICS segments in your tag list, and to create saved searches for ACUS/agency EAJA reports. The Hub can auto‑deliver curated lists of relevant reports and historical award summaries to assigned capture or legal owners.
• Proposal Studio (Proposal OS) — Proposal Studio generates EAJA-focused compliance matrices, boilerplate legal approaches, and first‑draft technical/management approaches drawing on your past performance records. The bid/no‑bid engine factors EAJA exposure into recommended decisions so capture teams can incorporate potential fee-related cost/risk assumptions into pricing and win themes.
• Proposal Studio Workflow Tracker — The Workflow Tracker creates 9‑gate capture workflows tied to EAJA follow-up: it routes evidence and eligibility checklists to contracts and legal reviewers, tracks required documentation, and collects audit-ready packages for post‑award or fee petition support.

Call to action: contact your Cabrillo client success team to enable these saved searches and capture templates for EAJA monitoring and to add DOL/NLRB/EEOC EAJA watchlists to your Signals War Room.

Related guides: Winning Federal Contracts Guide (/insights/winning-federal-contracts), CMMC Compliance Guide (/insights/cmmc-compliance-guide), CUI-Safe CRM Guide (/insights/cui-safe-crm-guide)