Jaime v. New York State Department of Corrections
- Kenneth Karas
- 7:24-cv-02758
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Jaime v. New York State Department of Corrections, Chief Judge Swain ordered Luis Jaime to pay fees or submit prisoner authorization.
Luis Jaime, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the required prisoner authorization for the case to proceed.
What happened
Luis Jaime, who is incarcerated and representing himself, sued the New York State Department of Corrections and other defendants. He submitted an application to proceed without paying fees upfront but did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court ordered Jaime, within 30 days, either to pay $405 in fees or submit the completed authorization. The authorization would permit installment deductions of the $350 filing fee from his prison account and provide the court with account statements. No summons will issue yet, and the case will be processed if he complies; otherwise, the action will be dismissed.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order. She also denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for any appeal from this order, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Jaime v. New York State Department of Corrections · No. 7:24-cv-02758
- Kenneth Karas
- Apr. 17, 2024
Background
Luis Jaime, who is incarcerated at Sullivan Correctional Facility, brought this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $405 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying the fees by submitting a signed application and a prisoner authorization.
Jaime submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an application to proceed in forma pauperis, but did not submit the required prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to send certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the prior six months.
Order
The court ordered Jaime to do one of two things within 30 days of the order: pay the full $405 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization. If he submits the authorization, it must identify docket number 24-CV-2758 (LTS).
The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that, if Jaime complies with the order, the case will be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.
Appeal and Additional Notice
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 an appeal. The attached authorization also warned that certain dismissals of a prisoner's federal action or appeal count as statutory “strikes,” and that three such strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless the prisoner faces imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.