Doctor v. Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-07894
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Lewis Doctor v. Doe, Judge Swain ordered Lewis Doctor to pay $405 or submit forms seeking to proceed without prepaying fees.
Lewis Doctor, who must either pay the required fees or submit the required IFP application and prisoner authorization within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Lewis Doctor v. Doe, Lewis Doctor filed a civil action while incarcerated at West Facility Annex and without a lawyer. The filing did not include the required fees or completed forms seeking permission to proceed without prepaying them.
The court gave Lewis Doctor 30 days from September 25, 2025, to pay $405 or submit a signed application and authorization allowing installment payments from his prison account. The $405 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee, although the administrative fee does not apply if the court grants permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain said no answer was required yet and ordered that the case would be processed if Lewis Doctor complied. She stated that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Doctor v. Doe · No. 1:25-cv-07894
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 25, 2025
Background
Lewis Doctor filed this civil action without a lawyer while incarcerated at West Facility Annex. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without prepaying court fees, or a prisoner authorization.
Fee requirements
The court explained that a prisoner bringing a civil action must either pay $405, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee, or request IFP status by filing a signed IFP application and prisoner authorization. If IFP status is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The prisoner authorization directs the facility to make those deductions and to send certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the previous six months to the court. The $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
Order
The court ordered Lewis Doctor, within 30 days of September 25, 2025, to either pay the $405 in fees or submit the attached IFP application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 25-CV-7894 (LTS). No answer was required at that time. If Lewis Doctor complied, 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.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order did not address the merits of the claims in the complaint.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.