Blackwood v. Westchester County Jail
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-02656
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Blackwood v. Westchester County Jail, Judge Swain ordered payment or corrected IFP papers within 30 days, warning the case would be dismissed otherwise.
Phillip Blackwood, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the required fees or submit corrected fee-waiver and prisoner-authorization forms for the case to proceed.
What happened
In Blackwood v. Westchester County Jail, Phillip Blackwood filed a civil action while incarcerated and without a lawyer. His fee-waiver forms were for another court.
The court gave Blackwood 30 days to pay the required $402 or submit the attached forms requesting permission to proceed without paying fees upfront, along with authorization for installment deductions from his prison account. No summons would issue yet.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that the case would be processed if Blackwood complied and dismissed if he did not. She also denied fee-waiver status for an appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Blackwood v. Westchester County Jail · No. 1:23-cv-02656
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 31, 2023
Background
Phillip Blackwood, who was incarcerated at Westchester County Jail, brought this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted a complaint, a request to proceed without prepaying fees (called an IFP application), and a prisoner authorization. The court stated that these forms were captioned for another court.
Order
The court ordered Blackwood, within 30 days of the order, to either pay $402 in filing and administrative fees or submit the attached IFP application and prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 23-CV-2656. The $402 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee. If the court grants the IFP application, the $350 filing fee must still be collected in installments from Blackwood's prison account, while the $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that, if Blackwood complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the permitted time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and scope of ruling
The court certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. This order addressed filing fees and required forms; it did not decide the underlying claims in the civil action. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.