Williams v. Orange County Jail Administration/Officers
- Laura Swain
- 1:20-cv-10614
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Devin Williams v. Orange County Jail Administration/Officers, Judge McMahon ordered payment or fee-waiver forms before the case could proceed.
Devin Williams, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the required fee-waiver and prisoner-authorization forms for the action to proceed.
What happened
In Devin Williams v. Orange County Jail Administrators/Officer et al., Devin Williams, who was incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request payment without prepaying.
The court gave Williams thirty days to pay $402 in fees or submit a completed fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow installment payments from his account. The court also directed the Clerk to mail him the order, issued no summons, and stated that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Colleen McMahon denied payment-without-prepayment status for any appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the claims’ merits.
The detailed version
- Williams v. Orange County Jail Administration/Officers · No. 1:20-cv-10614
- Laura Swain
- Dec. 17, 2020
Background
Devin Williams, who was incarcerated in the Orange County Jail and proceeding without a lawyer, filed a civil action against Orange County Jail Administrators/Officer et al. He submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.
Required filing steps
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit the required application and authorization. If the court grants the application, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization also directs the facility to deduct those payments and provide certified account statements for the preceding six months. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted this status.
Ruling and effect
The court ordered Williams, within thirty days of the order, to either pay the $402 or submit the completed application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 20-CV-10614 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail Williams a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. If Williams complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed. Judge Colleen McMahon also certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied payment-without-prepayment status for purposes of an appeal. The order did not address the merits of Williams’s claims. The court cautioned that a later dismissal for being frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a claim could count as a strike under the prisoner filing-fee law.
Classification basis
This is a procedural order because it addresses filing fees and the request to proceed without prepaying them, rather than deciding the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.