Booker v. NYS DOCCS
- Nelson Roman
- 7:22-cv-02355
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Booker v. NYS DOCCS, Judge Swain ordered a corrected prisoner authorization or $402 payment before the case could proceed.
DiQuan Booker, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, was required to pay the fees or submit a corrected authorization before the case could proceed.
What happened
DiQuan Booker, who is incarcerated, filed this case without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying filing fees upfront. He submitted the required application and authorization, but the authorization directed deductions to the federal court in the Northern District of New York.
The court ordered Booker, within 30 days, either to pay $402 in fees or to complete and sign a corrected authorization labeled with this case’s docket number. No summons would issue at that time, and the court said the case would be processed if he complied or dismissed if he did not.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the claims in the case.
The detailed version
- Booker v. NYS DOCCS · No. 7:22-cv-02355
- Nelson Roman
- Mar. 24, 2022
Background
DiQuan Booker filed this civil action while incarcerated and without a lawyer. He sought permission to proceed without prepaying filing fees, a status commonly called proceeding in forma pauperis, or IFP. A prisoner seeking IFP status must submit an application and a prisoner authorization allowing the court to collect the filing fee in installments from the prisoner’s prison trust account and obtain account statements for the previous six months.
Booker submitted an IFP application and a prisoner authorization. The authorization, however, allowed deductions to be sent to the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York rather than the court handling this case, the Southern District of New York.
Order
The court ordered Booker, within 30 days of the order, either to pay $402 in fees or to complete, sign, and submit the attached prisoner authorization. If he submitted the authorization, it had to identify docket number 1:22-CV-2355 (LTS). The $402 amount consists of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee; the administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
The court stated that no summons would issue at that time. If Booker complied, the action would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Other Rulings and Effect
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. The order addressed filing and fee requirements only; it did not decide the merits of Booker’s claims. It also cautioned that certain dismissals of prisoner cases can count as strikes under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.