Coombs v. United States of America

Background

Adrean Coombs filed this civil action while incarcerated at Essex County Correctional Facility and representing himself. He submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepayment of fees or a prisoner authorization.

Fees and required forms

The court explained that a prisoner starting a civil action must either pay $402—the $350 filing fee and $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment of fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and provide certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the previous six months.

Court’s order

The court ordered Coombs to do one of two things within 30 days of the order: pay the $402 in fees, or submit the application and prisoner authorization. The forms were to identify docket number 21-CV-3761 (LTS). The Clerk of Court was directed to mail the order to Coombs and record service on the docket.

No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that, if Coombs complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepayment of fees for an appeal.

The order did not decide the merits of Coombs’s claims. It also cautioned that a later dismissal as frivolous or for failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under the prisoner litigation statute.