2021 Colorado Code
Title 13 - Courts and Court Procedure
Article 17.5 - Costs - Attorney Fees - Inmate Lawsuits
§ 13-17.5-103. Filing Fees

1. An inmate who seeks to proceed in any civil action without prepayment of fees, in addition to filing any required affidavit, shall submit a copy of the inmate's account statement for the six-month period immediately preceding the filing of the civil action, certified by an appropriate official at the detaining facility. If the inmate account demonstrates that the inmate has sufficient funds to pay the filing fee, or if the action on its face is frivolous, groundless, or malicious, or fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted or seeks monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief, the motion to proceed as a poor person shall be denied.
2. Any inmate who is allowed to proceed in the civil action as a poor person shall be required to pay the full amount of the filing fee and service of process fees previously paid by the court in the following installments:
   1. If the inmate has ten dollars or more in his or her inmate account, make an initial partial payment in accordance with the order of the court; and
   2. Regardless if the inmate has ten dollars in his or her inmate account at the time of the filing of the civil action, make continuing monthly payments to the court equal to twenty percent of the preceding month's deposits in the inmate's account until the filing fee and service of process fees previously paid by the court are paid in full.

      (2.5) The court shall include in its order granting permission to proceed as a poor person the requirement that the inmate comply with the provisions of subsection (2) of this section.

      (2.7) A copy of any order granting an inmate's motion to proceed in a civil action as a poor person shall be forwarded by the court to the detaining facility that has custody of the inmate. Upon receipt of the order, the detaining facility shall forward payments from the inmate's account to the court in accordance with the order granting leave to proceed as a poor person.

3. In no event shall an inmate be prohibited from filing a civil action or appealing a civil or criminal judgment because the inmate has no assets and no means by which to pay the initial partial payment.

History. Source: L. 95: Entire article added, p. 479, § 1, effective July 1. L. 98: Entire section amended, p. 248, § 4, effective April 13. L. 2001: Entire section amended, p. 290, § 3, effective July 1.

Statutory section not void for vagueness since there are no words or phrases in this section that are not readily comprehensible to persons of ordinary intelligence without further definition. Collins v. Jaquez, 15 P.3d 299 (Colo. App. 2000).

Nor does statutory section violate inmate's right to have access to the courts, since inmate has opportunity to demonstrate insufficient funds to pay filing fees in order to be permitted access to the courts without incurring those fees. Collins v. Jaquez, 15 P.3d 299 (Colo. App. 2000).

In addition, section does not violate constitutional rights to due process or equal protection under a rational basis test. Collins v. Jaquez, 15 P.3d 299 (Colo. App. 2000).

Being granted the ability to proceed as a poor person under this section, without prepayment of fees, does not relieve an inmate from liability for the filing fee. Indigent inmates are not excused from paying the filing fee. The payment of the fee is merely placed on an installment schedule. Schwartz v. Owens, 134 P.3d 455 (Colo. App. 2005).

Section requires simultaneous, not sequential, recoupment of multiple filing fees from state inmates who owe multiple in-forma-pauperis-based state court filing fees. Robledo v. Exec. Dir. of Dept. Corr., 2020 COA 135 , 475 P.3d 617.

Trial court was required to give copies of summons and complaint to sheriff for service of process, unless the court concluded that the claims were frivolous or filed in bad faith. It was improper for the trial court to dismiss the action for failure to prosecute. Edmond v. City of Colo. Springs, 226 P.3d 1248 (Colo. App. 2010).

Applied in Harrison v. Wilson, 998 P.2d 1110 (Colo. App. 2000).