Williams v. The City of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-03250
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Williams v. The City of New York, Judge Swain ordered Ronald Williams to pay fees or submit forms to proceed.
Ronald Williams must either pay the required fees or submit the required application and prisoner authorization within 30 days, or the action will be dismissed. The City of New York was not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
Williams v. The City of New York is a lawsuit brought by Ronald Williams, who is incarcerated and filed the complaint without paying the required fees or submitting the required forms.
The court gave Williams 30 days to either pay $402 or submit an application to proceed without paying the fees upfront and authorization for installment deductions from his prison account. The court said the case would be processed if he complied and would be dismissed if he did not.
Judge Swain also denied permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Williams v. The City of New York · No. 1:23-cv-03250
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 24, 2023
Background
Ronald Williams filed this civil action against The City of New York without paying the required filing fees or submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Williams is incarcerated at Mid-State Correctional Facility and is proceeding without a lawyer.
Fees and required forms
The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. To make that request, Williams had to submit a signed application and a prisoner authorization. If permission is granted, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from his prison account, and the authorization directs the correctional facility to provide certified account statements for the previous six months and make the deductions.
Order
The court ordered Williams, within 30 days of April 24, 2023, to either pay the $402 or submit the application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 23-CV-3250 (LTS). The court stated that no answer was required at that time. If Williams complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and scope of ruling
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. This order addressed filing fees and required paperwork; it did not decide the merits of Williams’s claims against The City of New York.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.