Radcliffe v. Barometre
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:21-cv-02088
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Radcliffe v. Barometre, Judge McMahon ordered Gregory Radcliffe to pay fees or submit prisoner authorization within 30 days.
Gregory Radcliffe, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, had to pay the required fees or submit a prisoner authorization within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Radcliffe v. Barometre, Gregory Radcliffe filed a civil lawsuit without a lawyer while incarcerated. He submitted an application to proceed without paying fees upfront, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court gave Radcliffe 30 days to either pay $402 in filing and administrative fees or submit the signed authorization. That authorization would allow installment payments of the filing fee from his prison account and require account records to be sent to the court.
Judge McMahon ordered the Clerk to mail the order to Radcliffe and said no summons would issue yet. The case would proceed if he complied, but the action would be dismissed if he did not; the court also denied fee-free status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Radcliffe v. Barometre · No. 1:21-cv-02088
- Colleen McMahon
- Mar. 26, 2021
Background
Gregory Radcliffe, who was incarcerated in Otisville Correctional Facility, brought this action without a lawyer against Delta Barometre and Ronda Murray. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Filing-fee requirements
The court explained that a prisoner starting a civil action must either pay $402 in fees—$350 for the filing fee and $52 for the administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepayment. If the court grants that request, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization permits those deductions and directs the correctional facility to send the court certified account statements for the previous six months.
Order
The court ordered Radcliffe, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 21-CV-2088 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail him a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. If Radcliffe complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed.
The court also certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal. The order did not decide the merits of Radcliffe’s claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.