About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (February 20, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govcagz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Resarh Servi kM- Three Strikes, You're Out: Supreme Court to Consider Limit on Prisoner Litigation February 20, 2020 The Administrative Office of the United States Courts reports that in 2018, state and federal prisoners filed nearly 54,000 suits in federal district court. Such litigation, which often challenges the conditions of confinement in federal and state prisons, may allow prisoners to vindicate fundamental ights but can also place a heavy burden on the federal courts that hear the cases and the government officials who must defend against them. The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) seeks to balance those competing interests, ensuring that the flood of nonmeritorious claims does not submerge and effectively preclude consideration of the allegations with merit. On February 26, 2020, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral argument in the latest dispute over the PLRA, Lomax v Ortiz-Marquez. The case concerns the scope of the PLRA's three strikes provision, which aims to limit meritless litigation by prisoners. This Sidebar outlines the applicable legal regime, explaining how the PLRA modified the law related to prisoner litigation. The Sidebar then summarizes the litigation in Lomax and presents key considerations for Congress. Statutory Background Proceedings In Forma Pauperis By statute, a person who files suit in federal court must generally prepay a filing fee, which currently totals S400 for most civil actions brought in district court. Charging filing fees is understood to benefit the judiciary not only by helping to cover the courts' operating costs, but also by deterring excessive litigation: if litigants must pay hundreds of dollars every time they file a lawsuit, they may be less inclined to initiate time- and resource-consuming litigation with a low probability of success. To ensure that filing fees do not prevent indigent litigants from bringing potentially meritorious lawsuits, in the late 19th century Congress enacted legislation allowing litigants who submit an affidavit of indigence to proceed in fonna pauperis (IFP) and commence suit without prepaying court fees. However, as the Supreme Court has noted, a litigant whose filing fees and court costs are assumed by the public, unlike a paying litigant, lacks an economic incentive to refrain from filing frivolous, malicious, or repetitive lawsuits. The federal IFP statute thus contains provisions designed to discourage frivolous Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10408 CRS Lega Sidebar Prepaed for Membeivs and Cornm ittees o4 Co q _gress ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most