Garcia v. Bruder

Background

Damien Garcia filed a civil action against Officers Bruder and other defendants. The opinion states that Garcia was detained at Orange County Jail and was proceeding without a lawyer. He submitted his complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.

Fee and application requirements

The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402—the $350 filing fee and $52 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees by submitting a signed application and a prisoner authorization. If that permission is granted, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization permits withdrawals from the account and requires certified account statements for the prior six months.

Order

The court ordered Garcia, within 30 days, to either pay the $402 in fees or submit the required application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 22-CV-2800 (LTS). No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that, if Garcia 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.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not address the merits of Garcia’s underlying claims. The court 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, but it did not make such a dismissal here.