Williams v. State of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-02576
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Williams v. State of New York, Judge Swain ordered petitioner to pay $5 or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days.
Derrick Lavell Williams must either pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days, or the action will be dismissed. The order also denies permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal.
What happened
In Williams v. State of New York, Derrick Lavell Williams filed a petition asking the federal court to review his detention or conviction through a habeas corpus proceeding. He filed the petition without paying the $5 filing fee or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
The court gave Williams 30 days from April 4, 2025, to pay the fee or submit a signed application. The court said the case would be processed if he complied, but the action would be dismissed if he did not. No summons would issue at that time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order did not decide the substance of Williams’s habeas petition.
The detailed version
- Williams v. State of New York · No. 1:25-cv-02576
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 4, 2025
Background
Derrick Lavell Williams, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus against the State of New York and other respondents. The opinion does not describe the underlying claims or the relief Williams seeks. He submitted the petition without paying the required $5 filing fee and without submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order
The court directed Williams, within 30 days of the order, either to pay the $5 filing fee or to complete and submit the attached application to proceed without prepaying fees. The court explained that, if the application were granted, Williams could proceed without paying the fee in advance. The application was required to identify docket number 1:25-CV-2576 (LTS).
The court stated that no summons would issue at that time. If Williams complied with the order, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. This order addressed filing-fee and fee-waiver requirements; it did not reach the merits of the habeas petition.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.