Higgins v. Blinken
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-10801
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Higgins v. Blinken, Judge Swain ordered a pro se plaintiff to pay fees or apply to proceed without prepayment and denied fee-free status for any appeal.
Mark Rock Higgins, who must either pay the required fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Higgins v. Blinken, Mark Rock Higgins filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them. The order states that he was representing himself.
The court gave Higgins 30 days to pay $402 or submit a signed application asking to proceed without prepayment. No summons would issue at that time, and 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 fee-free status for purposes of an appeal.
The detailed version
- Higgins v. Blinken · No. 1:22-cv-10801
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 6, 2023
Background
Mark Rock Higgins brought the action without a lawyer. He submitted a complaint but did not pay the required filing and administrative fees and did not submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order
The court explained that proceeding with a civil action required either payment of $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or a signed application to proceed without prepayment under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915.
The court ordered Higgins, within 30 days of the order, to pay the $402 or submit the attached application. If the court granted the application, Higgins could proceed without prepaying fees. The application was to identify docket number 22-CV-10801 (LTS).
No summons would issue at that time. If Higgins complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal-related ruling
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.