Williams v. New York State Unified Court System
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-00331
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Williams v. New York State Unified Court System, Judge McMahon ordered a prisoner to pay fees or submit corrected forms within 30 days.
Kaseem Williams, who filed the action without a lawyer while incarcerated, was required to pay the fees or submit corrected forms before the case could be processed.
What happened
Williams v. New York State Unified Court System concerns Kaseem Williams’s lawsuit, which he filed without a lawyer while incarcerated.
Williams submitted an unsigned complaint without paying the required fees and used outdated forms to request permission to proceed without paying fees upfront. The court gave him 30 days to pay $400 or submit a signed complaint page, a current application, and a prisoner authorization form.
Judge McMahon ordered the Clerk to mail the order to Williams and said no summons would issue yet. She warned that the case would be dismissed if Williams did not comply, and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for any appeal.
The detailed version
- Williams v. New York State Unified Court System · No. 1:20-cv-00331
- Colleen McMahon
- Jan. 16, 2020
Background
Kaseem Williams filed this civil action without a lawyer while incarcerated at Cape Vincent Correctional Facility. His complaint was unsigned. He did not pay the $400 required to begin a civil action, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee. He also submitted an outdated application to proceed without paying fees upfront and an outdated prisoner authorization.
Applicable requirements
The court explained that an incarcerated person must either pay the required fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to deduct those payments and provide certified account statements for the previous six months.
The court further explained that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a) requires a filing by an unrepresented party to bear that party’s personal signature. The Supreme Court has interpreted this requirement to mean a handwritten name or personally placed mark.
Order
Within 30 days of the order, Williams had to either pay $400 in fees or submit the attached signature page, current application to proceed without prepaying fees, and prisoner authorization. The documents were to identify docket number 20-CV-331 (CM). The court stated that, if Williams complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its ordinary procedures. If he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
The Clerk was directed to assign the matter to Judge McMahon’s docket, mail Williams a copy of the order, and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court also certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the prisoner litigation statute.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.