Falls v. Arteta
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-00830
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Falls v. Arteta, Judge Swain extended Falls’s deadline to pay the filing fee or submit a request to proceed without prepayment.
Raiquan K. Falls, the petitioner, must either pay the $5 filing fee or submit the required application within the extended deadline; otherwise, the action will be dismissed.
What happened
In Falls v. Arteta, Raiquan K. Falls, who is detained in the Orange County Jail, said the jail library lacked required forms and that he had signed a request for financial assistance. The court had previously ordered him to pay a $5 filing fee or submit that request.
The court extended Falls’s deadline by 30 days from the order. He must either pay the $5 fee or complete and submit the attached application to proceed without prepaying the fee. The court said a prisoner authorization to deduct money is not required for a detention-relief petition, but warned that the case will be dismissed if Falls does not comply.
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 the appeal fee. The order did not decide the substance of Falls’s detention-relief petition.
The detailed version
- Falls v. Arteta · No. 1:23-cv-00830
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 17, 2023
Background
Raiquan K. Falls is detained in the Orange County Jail and filed a petition seeking relief from detention. On February 3, 2023, the court directed him to submit either a completed application to proceed without prepaying the filing fee, commonly called an in forma pauperis application, or the $5 filing fee required for a detention-relief petition.
In a letter received February 16, Falls said the law library lacked prisoner authorization forms and various state-court forms. He also said he had signed a “poor person application” authorizing deductions from his inmate account. The court stated that it had not received an application to proceed without prepayment.
Order
The court explained that a prisoner authorization form is not required in this case because prisoners seeking detention-relief petitions are not subject to the special fee requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The court granted Falls an extension of time to comply with the February 3 order.
Within 30 days of this order, Falls must either pay the $5 filing fee or complete and submit the attached application, labeled with docket number 23-CV-830 (LTS). If the court grants the application, Falls may proceed without prepaying the filing fee. The court stated that the action will be dismissed if he does not comply within the allowed time.
Appeal and Effect
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying the appeal fee. This order addressed filing requirements and did not decide the substance of Falls’s detention-relief petition.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.