# Equal Access to Justice Act **Status: stub — expand.** Enacted 1980, codified principally at **28 U.S.C. § 2412** (with a parallel provision for agency adjudications at 5 U.S.C. § 504). It waives federal [[Sovereign Immunity]] for attorney's fees and costs, allowing a prevailing private party to recover from the United States where the government's position was **not substantially justified** and no special circumstances make an award unjust. Its structural significance is narrower and more important than it sounds: it is the one money route that reliably **collects** against the federal government. Contempt fines against the United States itself have no comparable waiver, so in practice a court that wants a non-compliant agency to feel a financial consequence reaches for fees rather than for a sanction. Eligibility is capped by the claimant's net worth and the rate is statutorily limited, which keeps the award in the range of a cost of doing business rather than a deterrent. ## See also - [[How a Federal Court Order Is Enforced]] · [[Sovereign Immunity]] · [[Contempt of Court]]