Herrera v. Honorable Judge Malave Gonzalez
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-05432
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Jeffrey Enrique Herrera v. Honorable Judge Malave Gonzalez, Judge Swain ordered payment or authorization before the civil case could proceed.
Jeffrey Enrique Herrera, who must either pay the stated fees or submit a valid prisoner authorization within 30 days for the action to proceed. The order also affects the processing of any appeal from this order.
What happened
Jeffrey Enrique Herrera filed a civil complaint against Honorable Judge Malave Gonzalez and other defendants. He provided an address in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and later submitted documents showing that he was detained at Lackawanna County Jail.
The court had previously told Herrera to pay $405 in filing and administrative fees or submit an application to proceed without paying the fees upfront. Because a detained prisoner must also authorize installment deductions from his account, the court found that Herrera’s submitted authorization was outdated and did not state the amount to be deducted.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Herrera, within 30 days, either to pay the $405 or submit the attached prisoner authorization form. No summons will issue yet. The court said the action will be dismissed if he does not comply and denied payment-free status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Herrera v. Honorable Judge Malave Gonzalez · No. 1:25-cv-05432
- Laura Swain
- Dec. 1, 2025
Background
Jeffrey Enrique Herrera filed this civil action on June 26, 2025. At filing, he provided an address in Scranton, Pennsylvania. On July 18, 2025, the court directed him either to pay $405 in fees—$350 for the filing fee and $55 for the administrative fee—or to request permission to proceed without prepaying fees by submitting a signed application.
Herrera submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees and another document showing that he was then detained at Lackawanna County Jail. Because he is a prisoner, the court required more than the application. Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, a prisoner granted this status must pay the $350 filing fee in installments deducted from his prisoner account. The prisoner must therefore submit an authorization directing the detention facility to make those deductions and send the court certified copies of account statements for the preceding six months.
Court’s action
The court stated that Herrera had submitted an outdated prisoner authorization that did not specify the amount to be deducted from his account. The order gives him 30 days from December 1, 2025, to either pay the $405 in fees or submit the attached prisoner authorization form labeled with docket number 25-CV-5432 (LTS).
The court ordered that no summons issue at this time. It stated that, if Herrera complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he does not comply within the permitted time, the action will be dismissed. The court also certified that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order cautioned that a later dismissal as frivolous or for failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the prisoner litigation statute, but it did not make such a dismissal here.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain, Chief United States District Judge, signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.