Torres v. Licon-Vitale

Background

Jonathan Torres filed this civil action while detained at the Metropolitan Correctional Center and proceeding without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or the required prisoner authorization.

Fee Requirements

The order explains that a prisoner must either pay $400—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit the forms needed to request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. If that permission is granted, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner's trust-fund account. The prisoner authorization also directs the facility to deduct those payments and provide certified account statements for the preceding six months. The $50 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.

Ruling

Judge Stanton ordered Torres, within 30 days of the order, either to pay the $400 in fees or submit the completed application and prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 20-CV-3787 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail the order to Torres and note service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The order states that the case would be processed under the Clerk's procedures if Torres complied and that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed time. The court also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order cautioned that a future dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a statutory strike under the prisoner-litigation law.