Renee Williams v. The Brooklyn Defenders, ET AL.
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-07648
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Renee Williams v. The Brooklyn Defenders, Judge Swain ordered payment or prisoner authorization before the case could proceed.
Renee Williams and her civil action; the case will not proceed to issuance of a summons unless she satisfies the payment or authorization requirements.
What happened
In Renee Williams v. The Brooklyn Defenders, Renee Williams filed a civil action without a lawyer and submitted an application to proceed without paying fees up front. The court noted that she reported being incarcerated at Central New York Psychiatric Center, although she also provided a non-facility mailing address.
The court ordered Williams, within 30 days, either to pay $405 in filing and administrative fees or to submit a completed prisoner authorization allowing installment payments from her account. If she was not legally considered a prisoner when she filed the case, she was directed to explain her status using the attached declaration form.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed that no summons issue for now and stated that the action will be dismissed without prejudice if Williams does not comply. The order did not address the merits of her claims, and the court denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Renee Williams v. The Brooklyn Defenders, ET AL. · No. 1:25-cv-07648
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 17, 2025
Background
Renee Williams filed this civil action without a lawyer. She submitted an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees, but she did not submit the required prisoner authorization. In her application, Williams stated that she was incarcerated and listed Central New York Psychiatric Center as her address, while also providing a non-facility mailing address. The opinion describes Central New York Psychiatric Center as a maximum-security forensic psychiatric hospital.
Court’s order
The court explained that filing a civil action ordinarily requires $405 in fees: a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee. A prisoner who is allowed to proceed without prepaying fees must still pay the $350 filing fee in installments under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The prisoner authorization permits deductions from the prisoner’s account and requires the facility to send the court certified account statements for the preceding six months.
Within 30 days of the order, Williams must either pay the $405 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 25-CV-7648 (LTS). If she was not a “prisoner” as defined by the federal filing-fee statute when she filed the action, she must instead explain her status on that date using the attached declaration form.
Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that no summons issue at this time. The order states that if Williams fails to comply within the permitted period, the action will be dismissed without prejudice, meaning the order does not bar a later refiling. The court did not decide Williams’s underlying claims. It also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.