McNeil v. Department of Corrections
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-09480
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In McNeil v. Department of Corrections, Judge McMahon ordered Justin McNeil to pay fees or submit forms, warning the case would be dismissed for noncompliance.
Justin McNeil, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the specified forms within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
Justin McNeil, who was incarcerated and representing himself, filed this case without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization.
The court gave McNeil 30 days from November 30, 2020, to either pay $400 or submit the required forms. If approved, the application would allow the $350 filing fee to be collected from his account in installments; the $50 administrative fee would not apply.
Judge McMahon directed the Clerk of Court to mail McNeil the order and stated that no summons would issue yet. The case would proceed if McNeil complied, but the action would be dismissed if he did not. The court also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- McNeil v. Department of Corrections · No. 1:20-cv-09480
- Colleen McMahon
- Nov. 30, 2020
Background
Justin McNeil, who was incarcerated at the Vernon C. Bain Center, brought this civil action without a lawyer. He filed the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that McNeil had originally filed the complaint with 49 other detainees and that the claims were later separated into individual cases.
Court’s order
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants the application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected from the prisoner’s account in installments. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the previous six months.
The court ordered McNeil, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 or submit the required forms labeled with docket number 20-CV-9480 (CM). The Clerk of Court was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that the case would be processed if McNeil complied and that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed time.
Appeal and warning
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The court also warned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). This order addressed filing-fee and authorization requirements; it did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.