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PLRA Violation – IFP Application

By: Derek Hawkins//July 6, 2021//

PLRA Violation – IFP Application

By: Derek Hawkins//July 6, 2021//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Mario Reyes v. Robert Fishel, et al.,

Case No.: 19-1082; 19-1084

Officials: KANNE, BRENNAN, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: PLRA Violation – IFP Application

Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”), prisoners filing petitions to proceed in a suit in forma pauperis (“IFP”) can’t deliberately misrepresent their financial status. If a prisoner does so, the case must be dismissed. Mario Reyes, a prisoner in the Illinois Department of Corrections, filed a § 1983 action in 2017 and another in 2018 in federal court and petitioned to proceed IFP in both cases. The district court initially granted those IFP petitions but later dismissed both cases after the defendants presented evidence showing that Reyes deliberately misled the court about his finances on his 2017 IFP application.

We affirm the dismissal of the 2017 case because the district court did not clearly err in finding that Reyes was dishonest about his financial status. But as for the 2018 case, the court did not give Reyes a chance to explain any potential issues with his IFP application—and the defendants concede that he should have been given that opportunity. We thus vacate the order dismissing the second case and remand it for further proceedings.

Vacated and remanded

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Derek A Hawkins is Associate Corporate Counsel, IP at Amazon.

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