Hall v. Miller
- Louis Stanton
- 1:21-cv-00542
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Hall v. Miller, Judge McMahon ordered Ralph Hall to pay the filing fee or submit a fee-waiver application within 30 days.
Ralph Hall, the self-represented petitioner, must either pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed fee-waiver application within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
Hall v. Miller is a habeas petition filed by Ralph Hall, who was representing himself. Hall submitted the petition without paying the $5 filing fee or providing an application to proceed without paying fees in advance.
The court ordered Hall to pay the $5 fee or submit a signed fee-waiver application within 30 days. The court said the case would be processed if he complied and would be dismissed if he did not. The court did not require an answer from Christopher Miller at this stage.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon issued the order on January 21, 2021. She also ruled that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Hall v. Miller · No. 1:21-cv-00542
- Louis Stanton
- Jan. 21, 2021
Background
Ralph Hall, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus against Christopher Miller. The opinion does not describe the underlying habeas claims. Hall submitted the petition without paying the $5 filing fee and without submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order
The court directed Hall, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment of fees. The court stated that, if it granted the application, Hall could proceed without paying the fee in advance. The application was to identify docket number 21-CV-542 (CM).
The Clerk of Court was directed to mail the order to Hall and record service on the docket. The court stated that no answer was required at that time. If Hall complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the permitted time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and disposition
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. The court therefore denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. This was a procedural order concerning the filing fee and fee-waiver application; it did not decide the merits of Hall’s habeas petition.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.