Clark v. Jordan
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-04937
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Clark v. Jordant, Judge Swain ordered Jahmel Clark to pay filing fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment.
Jahmel Clark, who must either pay the required fees or submit the required application and authorization materials within 30 days; the action will be dismissed if he does not comply. The defendants were not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
In Clark v. Jordant, Jahmel Clark, who is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility, filed a civil action without a lawyer against Lt. Jordant and other defendants.
The court gave Clark 30 days to either pay the required $402 in fees or submit a completed and signed application to proceed without paying fees in advance, along with the required authorization for deductions from his prison account. Clark had submitted the authorization but not the application.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that no answer was required yet and that the case would be processed if Clark complied. The court stated that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply and denied fee-free status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Clark v. Jordan · No. 1:22-cv-04937
- Laura Swain
- June 13, 2022
Background
Jahmel Clark filed this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility. The caption names Lt. Jordant and other defendants. Clark submitted a complaint and a prisoner authorization, but he did not submit a completed and signed application to proceed without prepaying filing fees.
Required Filing
The court ordered Clark, within 30 days of the order, to either pay $402 in fees or submit a completed and signed application to proceed without prepayment of fees. The $402 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee. If the court grants the application, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from Clark's prison trust-fund account. The prisoner authorization permits those deductions and requires submission of certified account statements for the previous six months. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted this status.
Ruling and Effect
The court ordered that no answer was required at that time. If Clark complied, the action 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 from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal. The order addresses filing-fee and application requirements and does not state a decision on the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.