Opinion
2:17-cv-01093-JAD-VCF
04-24-2017
JUSTIN LAFFERTY, Plaintiff, v. JAMES DZURENDA et al., Defendants.
ORDER
I. DISCUSSION
Plaintiff, who is a prisoner in the custody of the Nevada Department of Corrections, has submitted a civil rights complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and has filed an application to proceed in forma pauperis. (ECF No. 1, 1-1).
Plaintiff's application to proceed in forma pauperis is incomplete. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(2) and Local Rule LSR 1-2, Plaintiff must complete an application to proceed in forma pauperis and attach both an inmate account statement for the past six months and a properly executed financial certificate. Plaintiff has not submitted a properly executed financial certificate on this Court's approved form or an inmate account statement. (See ECF No. 1). As such, the in forma pauperis application is denied without prejudice. The Court will retain Plaintiff's civil rights complaint (ECF No. 1-1), but will not file it until the matter of the payment of the filing fee is resolved. Plaintiff will be granted an opportunity to cure the deficiencies of his application to proceed in forma pauperis, or in the alternative, pay the full filing fee for this action. If Plaintiff chooses to file a new application to proceed in forma pauperis he must file a fully complete application to proceed in forma pauperis.
The Court notes that Plaintiff states that after two attempts the NDOC will not provide Plaintiff with a federal financial certificate "so this state [one] will have to do." (ECF No. 1 at 4).
If, however, Plaintiff continues to have difficulty obtaining a financial certificate and an inmate account statement from prison officials, Plaintiff shall file an affidavit in this case detailing when he requested the documents, who he spoke to about the status of the documents, who he followed up with after he did not receive the documents, and their responses. In other words, if Plaintiff is unable to acquire the necessary documents from prison officials, he must provide the Court with an affidavit that demonstrates that he has done all that he could to acquire the documents by the Court's deadline. Plaintiff's affidavit should include dates of his requests, dates of his follow-up requests, names of the prison officials that he spoke to about the matter, and their responses. If Plaintiff's affidavit demonstrates that he has done all that was possible to acquire the documents, the Court will consider his application to proceed in forma pauperis complete.
Plaintiff must still submit an application to proceed in forma pauperis with his affidavit. --------
II. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff's application to proceed in forma pauperis (ECF No. 1) is DENIED without prejudice to file a new application.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court SHALL SEND Plaintiff the approved form application to proceed in forma pauperis by a prisoner, as well as the document entitled information and instructions for filing an in forma pauperis application.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that on or before Wednesday, May 24, 2017, Plaintiff shall either: (1) file a fully complete application to proceed in forma pauperis, on the correct form with complete financial attachments in compliance with 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a); or (2) file an affidavit detailing the efforts he took to acquire a financial certificate and an inmate account statement from prison officials. If Plaintiff chooses to file an affidavit, his affidavit must describe the actions he took to acquire the documents through Wednesday, May 17, 2017. Plaintiff shall not file an affidavit before that date. Additionally, Plaintiff must submit an application to proceed in forma pauperis to this Court even if he is unable to acquire the necessary attachments from prison officials.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, if Plaintiff does not timely comply with this order, dismissal of this action may result.
DATED: This 24th day of April, 2017.
/s/_________
United States Magistrate Judge