Lee v. Cooper
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-05266
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Lee v. Cooper, Judge Swain ordered Steven Lee to pay filing fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment.
Steven Lee must either pay the $402 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment within 30 days; otherwise, the action will be dismissed. The order does not decide the claims against Matthew F. Cooper.
What happened
In Lee v. Cooper, Steven Lee filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepayment. The order does not decide the claims against Matthew F. Cooper.
The court gave Lee 30 days from July 9, 2021, to pay $402 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment. If the court grants that application, Lee may proceed without paying the fees in advance; if he does not comply, the action will be dismissed. No summons will issue at this time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the Clerk of Court to mail the order to Lee and record service on the docket. She also denied application-based fee status for any appeal from this order, certifying that such an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Lee v. Cooper · No. 1:21-cv-05266
- Laura Swain
- July 9, 2021
Background
Steven Lee brought this action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required filing and administrative fees and without submitting an application to proceed without prepayment of fees, commonly called an IFP application.
Court’s Order
The court explained that a plaintiff must either pay $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed IFP application under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915.
The court ordered Lee, within 30 days of the order, to do one of those two things. If Lee submits the application, it must identify docket number 21-CV-5266 (LTS). If the court grants the application, Lee may proceed without paying the fees in advance. If Lee does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. No summons will issue at this time.
Other Directions and Disposition
The Clerk of Court was directed to mail Lee a copy of the order and note service on the docket. Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. This order addresses fees and permission to proceed; it does not resolve the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.