Buchbinder v. Hochul
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-00043
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Buchbinder v. Hochul, Judge Swain ordered pro se plaintiff Pamela Buchbinder to pay fees or submit forms to proceed without prepayment.
Pamela Buchbinder, a prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the filing fees or submit the required forms within the stated deadline to continue the action.
What happened
In Buchbinder v. Hochul, Pamela Buchbinder filed the action without a lawyer. The court said she had to either pay $402 in fees or request permission to proceed without paying the fees upfront by submitting a signed application and prisoner authorization.
The court gave Buchbinder 30 days from February 14, 2022, to comply. The authorization would allow filing-fee payments to be deducted from her prisoner account in installments. The court said the case would be processed if she complied and would be dismissed if she did not; no summons would issue at that time.
Judge Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. This order did not decide the claims against Kathleen Hochul or the other defendants.
The detailed version
- Buchbinder v. Hochul · No. 1:22-cv-00043
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 14, 2022
Background
Pamela Buchbinder filed the action without a lawyer. The court’s order concerned the filing requirements for a prisoner bringing a civil action, not the underlying claims against Kathleen Hochul, Governor, and the other defendants.
Payment or request to proceed without prepayment
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application, together with a prisoner authorization. If the court grants the IFP application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the prior six months.
The court had previously ordered Buchbinder to pay the fees or submit the required forms. Buchbinder then wrote that she was being transferred from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility to the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers Island and had not been allowed to take her legal materials with her.
Order
The court ordered Buchbinder, within 30 days of February 14, 2022, to either pay the $402 or submit the attached IFP application and prisoner authorization. The order instructed that the forms should be labeled with docket number 21-CV-00043, although the case caption identifies the action as No. 22-CV-00043 (LTS). The Clerk was directed to mail Buchbinder a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time.
The court stated that, if Buchbinder complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If she failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed. The court also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under the prisoner-filing statute. Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
What the order did not decide
The opinion did not resolve the merits of Buchbinder’s claims or decide whether any defendant was liable.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.