Watson v. Earl
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-02519
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Watson v. Earl, Judge Swain ordered Robert Watson to pay $405 or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
Robert Watson must either pay the required fees or submit an IFP application within 30 days; otherwise, his action will be dismissed. The defendants are not required to respond at this stage because no summons will issue yet.
What happened
In Watson v. Earl, Robert Watson filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court gave Watson 30 days from April 2, 2025, to pay $405 or submit the required application. No summons will issue yet, and the action will be dismissed if he does not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Watson v. Earl · No. 1:25-cv-02519
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 2, 2025
Background
Robert Watson brought the action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without an application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without prepaying court fees.
Order
The court ordered Watson, within 30 days of April 2, 2025, to do one of two things: pay $405 in fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee, or submit a signed IFP application. If the court grants the application, Watson may proceed without prepaying the fees.
The court stated that no summons would issue at that time. If Watson 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.
Appeal
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order did not address the underlying claims in the action.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.