Barnett v. Acker
- Laura Swain
- 7:25-cv-06174
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Barnett v. Acker, Judge Swain ordered plaintiff Andre-Nigel Barnett to pay $405 or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
Andre-Nigel Barnett, whose case cannot proceed under the order unless he pays the required fees or submits the required application within 30 days.
What happened
Barnett v. Acker concerns a complaint filed by Andre-Nigel Barnett without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court gave Barnett 30 days from August 1, 2025, to either pay $405 or submit a signed application showing that he cannot afford the fees. The court said no summons would issue at that time and that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the payment or application and stated that an appeal from the order would not be considered to have been taken in good faith, so permission to appeal without prepaying fees was denied. The order did not decide the merits of Barnett’s claims.
The detailed version
- Barnett v. Acker · No. 7:25-cv-06174
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 1, 2025
Background
Andre-Nigel Barnett filed this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion does not describe the claims or the underlying dispute. Barnett submitted the complaint without paying the required filing and administrative fees and without an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order
The court explained that a plaintiff must either pay $405—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. The court gave Barnett 30 days from the date of the order to take one of those actions. If he submitted the application, it had to identify docket number 1:25-CV-6174 (LTS). The court stated that, if it granted the application, Barnett could proceed without prepaying the fees.
No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if Barnett complied, and that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed period.
Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed Barnett to pay the fees or submit the application. The order did not rule on the merits of the complaint. The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.