Peralta v. McCarthy
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-04767
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Peralta v. McCarthy, Judge Swain ordered the prisoner to pay fees or submit authorization within 30 days.
Jose Fernandez Ramos Peralta, who must either pay the stated fees or submit the required prisoner authorization for the action to proceed.
What happened
In Peralta v. McCarthy, Jose Fernandez Ramos Peralta filed a civil action without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying fees upfront. He submitted the required application but did not submit the separate authorization needed for prison-account payments.
The court ordered Peralta, within 30 days, either to pay $405 in fees or submit the prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow installment payments of the $350 filing fee and provide the court with six months of account statements.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed that no summons issue yet and stated that the action will be dismissed if Peralta does not comply. She also denied fee-free status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Peralta v. McCarthy · No. 1:24-cv-04767
- Laura Swain
- July 2, 2024
Background
Jose Fernandez Ramos Peralta filed this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he is incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying court fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The Fee and Authorization Requirements
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $405 to bring a civil action—$350 for the filing fee and $55 for the administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. If the court grants that request, federal law requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The prisoner authorization directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and send the court certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the previous six months.
Order
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Peralta, within 30 days of the order, either to pay the $405 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 24-CV-4767 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. If Peralta complies, the Clerk's Office will process the case under its procedures; if he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.
The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The opinion cautioned that certain dismissals of prisoner actions can count as strikes under federal law, but it did not dismiss this action in the order itself.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.