The court does not pay him. The attorneys send it from a trust account. He is not covered under any county pension, as he is not an employee of theirs. I put the question out here to see if anyone else had a client in this situation, especially since the SSA handbook does have a section that says a fee based person does not pay SE and he said they all fall into this category. I agree that he should pay SE tax. Thank you for taking the time to comment.