Fredricks v. Renze
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-07274
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Fredricks v. Renze: Judge Swain ordered Nigel Fredricks to pay fees or submit prisoner authorization within 30 days to proceed.
Nigel Fredricks, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the required prisoner authorization within 30 days.
What happened
In Fredricks v. Renze, Nigel Fredricks, who is incarcerated and representing himself, submitted an application to proceed without prepaying court fees but did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court gave Fredricks 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit the completed authorization, which permits installment deductions from his prison account. The court also said that no summons would issue yet and that the case would be processed if he complied; otherwise, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Fredricks v. Renze · No. 1:22-cv-07274
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 31, 2022
Background
Nigel Fredricks, who is incarcerated at Auburn Correctional Facility and is proceeding without a lawyer, brought this civil action against Renze. Fredricks submitted an application to proceed without prepaying court fees, commonly called an application to proceed in forma pauperis, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Court’s Order
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed application and prisoner authorization. The authorization directs the correctional facility to deduct the $350 filing fee from the prisoner’s account in installments and to send the court certified account statements for the previous six months. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
The court ordered Fredricks, within 30 days of the order, either to pay the $402 in fees or to complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 22-CV-7274 (LTS). No summons would issue at that time. If Fredricks complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal Certification
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The court also cautioned that certain future dismissals of prisoner actions could 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.