Timmons v. New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-01546
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Timmons v. New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Judge Swain ordered payment or IFP paperwork within 30 days.
Richard Timmons’s federal civil action was affected. The order required him to pay the filing fees or submit an application and authorization to proceed without prepaying fees, and it warned that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within 30 days.
What happened
Richard Timmons filed Timmons v. New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision while incarcerated and without a lawyer. The order addressed only the filing requirements, not the claims’ merits.
The court said Timmons had to pay $402 in filing and administrative fees or submit a signed application to proceed without paying fees upfront, along with authorization for installment payments from his prison account. No summons would issue yet.
Within 30 days, Timmons must pay the fees or submit the required documents, or the action will be dismissed. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied fee-free status for any appeal from this order because an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Timmons v. New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision · No. 1:23-cv-01546
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 2, 2023
Background
Richard Timmons, who the opinion says is incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, filed this action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application, or a prisoner authorization.
Court’s Order
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402—the $350 filing fee plus a $52 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. If the court grants that request, the $350 filing fee must still be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization permits deductions from the account and requires certified account statements for the previous six months to be sent to the court. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
The court ordered Timmons, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 or submit the attached IFP application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 23-CV-1546 (LTS). The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that, if Timmons complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and Classification
The court certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying claims against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order as Chief United States District Judge.
Practical Effect
The case was not dismissed by this order. Timmons was given a 30-day opportunity to pay the required fees or submit the documents needed to request permission to proceed without prepaying them. The opinion does not describe the claims in the complaint or state whether the court later granted the request.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.