Gilmore v. Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-07000
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Vincent Gilmore v. John Doe, Judge Swain ordered payment or a fee-waiver application within 30 days, warning the action will be dismissed for noncompliance.
Vincent Gilmore must either pay the required fees or submit the specified forms within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action; John Doe was not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
Vincent Gilmore v. John Doe concerns a civil action filed by Gilmore, who is incarcerated and representing himself. He submitted his complaint without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to ask to proceed without paying fees upfront.
The court ordered Gilmore, within 30 days, either to pay $405 or submit a completed fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow installment deductions from his prison account for the $350 filing fee. No response from John Doe was required at this stage.
Judge Swain warned that the action will be dismissed if Gilmore does not comply within the deadline. The order did not decide the underlying claims and denied fee-free status for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Gilmore v. Doe · No. 1:25-cv-07000
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 27, 2025
Background
Vincent Gilmore filed this civil action while incarcerated at Otis Bantum Correction Center and without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without the required filing fees, a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, or a prisoner authorization.
The Required Filings or Payment
The order states that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $405 in fees—$350 for the filing fee and $55 for the administrative fee—or submit the required application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court approves the application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
The prisoner authorization also directs the correctional facility to provide certified account statements for the preceding six months and to deduct the required payments from the prison account. The submitted forms were to identify docket number 25-CV-7000 (LTS).
Ruling and Consequences
The court ordered Gilmore to pay the $405 or submit the completed application and prisoner authorization within 30 days of the order. If he 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. John Doe was not required to answer at that time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for such an appeal. The order did not address the merits of Gilmore's underlying claims. It also cautioned that certain future dismissals could count as strikes under the prisoner filing statute.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.