Mizrahi v. The Department of Corrections of the City of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-03987
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Mizrahi v. Department of Correction, Judge Swain ordered Louis J. Mizrahi to pay fees or request permission to proceed without prepayment within 30 days.
Louis J. Mizrahi, who must either pay the required fees or submit a complete application to proceed without prepaying them within 30 days; the case will be dismissed if he does not comply.
What happened
In Mizrahi v. Department of Correction of the City of New York, Louis J. Mizrahi filed this case without a lawyer while detained at the Otis B. Bantum Center on Rikers Island. His filing included a prisoner authorization, but his request to proceed without paying fees was incomplete and unsigned.
The court gave Mizrahi 30 days to either pay the required $405 in fees or submit the attached completed and signed application to proceed without prepayment of fees. No summons will issue yet. If he complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case; if he does not, the action will be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Mizrahi v. The Department of Corrections of the City of New York · No. 1:25-cv-03987
- Laura Swain
- May 14, 2025
Background
Louis J. Mizrahi filed this civil action without a lawyer while detained at the Otis B. Bantum Center on Rikers Island. He submitted a complaint and a prisoner authorization, but his application to proceed without prepaying filing fees was missing its second page and was unsigned.
Order
The court ordered Mizrahi, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay $405 in filing and administrative fees, or submit a completed and signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. The court explained that the $405 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee. If a prisoner is allowed to proceed without prepaying fees, the $350 filing fee is collected through installment payments from the prisoner’s account, and the prisoner must authorize those withdrawals and provide certified account statements for the prior six months.
Mizrahi was instructed to label any submitted application with docket number 25-CV-3987 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. If he complies with the order, the Clerk’s Office will process the case. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.
Appeal and Other Information
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the prisoner-filing law, and that three strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless the prisoner faces imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order as Chief United States District Judge.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.