In Forma Pauperis: Who Qualifies, How to Apply, and What’s Covered

In forma pauperis, often shortened to IFP, is a court status that lets you file a lawsuit without paying the upfront filing fee if you cannot afford it. The Latin phrase means “in the manner of a pauper,” and the doctrine exists so that a $405 federal filing fee, or a state court fee of $75 to $500, does not shut someone out of court. To get it, you submit a sworn statement of your finances with your complaint, and a judge decides whether paying would force you to go without rent, food, or medicine.

Who Qualifies

Courts measure your finances against the Federal Poverty Guidelines published each year by the Department of Health and Human Services. For 2026, the poverty line is $15,960 for one person, $21,640 for a household of two, and $33,000 for a family of four in the 48 contiguous states.¹ Most courts grant IFP status when income falls between 125% and 200% of those numbers, though the exact cutoff depends on the court and the judge.

The guidelines are a starting point, not a formula. A judge looks at gross monthly income, necessary living costs, outstanding debts, child support obligations, and any cash or assets you can tap. The real question is whether paying the filing fee would force you to sacrifice basic necessities. Someone earning above the threshold can still qualify if their expenses leave nothing to spare, and someone below it can be denied if they have substantial savings.

Courts are also watching for people who simply prefer not to pay. The standard is genuine inability, not inconvenience. If you have a checking account with several thousand dollars or own property beyond your home, expect the judge to ask why you cannot cover the fee.

How to Apply

Federal law requires anyone requesting IFP status to submit an affidavit listing their income, expenses, and assets.² In federal district courts, the standard form is AO 240, “Application to Proceed in District Court Without Prepaying Fees or Costs.”³ You can pick it up at the clerk’s office or download it from the court’s website.

The form asks for a complete snapshot of your finances. You will disclose every source of monthly income (wages, government benefits, retirement payments, support from family), the balances in your bank accounts, and the value of anything significant you own, like real estate, vehicles, or investments. Have recent pay stubs or benefit letters so your numbers are precise. This is a sworn statement, and inaccuracies carry real consequences: if the court determines you lied about being unable to pay, it can dismiss your case outright.²

File the IFP application at the same time you file your complaint. If you submit the lawsuit without it, the clerk will likely reject the filing until you either pay the fee or include the application. Most courts accept the paperwork in person, by certified mail, or through their electronic filing system. A judge or magistrate then reviews your disclosures. If the request is denied, you typically get 21 to 30 days to pay the full fee, and missing that deadline means dismissal.

Notarization Is Usually Not Required

A common worry is finding and paying a notary. Under federal law, you can sign the application as an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury instead of getting it notarized, and it carries the same legal weight.⁴ The required language is straightforward: “I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct,” followed by the date and your signature. The Supreme Court’s own IFP guide confirms that either a notarized affidavit or a declaration under penalty of perjury is acceptable.⁵ If your state court requires notarization anyway, notary fees for a standard signature typically run from a few dollars to $25.

Requesting a Lawyer

There is no constitutional right to a free attorney in a civil case the way there is in criminal prosecutions. Once you have IFP status, however, the court has discretion to ask a lawyer to represent you.² “Ask” is the operative word. The statute says the court “may request” an attorney, not that it must appoint one, and volunteer lawyers are in short supply. Courts are most likely to seek counsel when a case has legal merit but is too complex to handle alone. Ask, but prepare to represent yourself if the court cannot find a willing attorney.

What the Waiver Covers

The primary benefit is waiver of the civil filing fee. In federal district court, that fee is $350 under the statute plus a $55 administrative fee set by the Judicial Conference, totaling $405.⁶⁷ The administrative fee does not apply to IFP litigants, so the entire $405 is waived.

IFP status also covers service of process. The statute directs court officers to issue and serve all process in IFP cases.² In practice, the U.S. Marshals Service delivers your summons and complaint to the defendant, and you are exempt from prepaying their service fees.⁸ You will need to submit a USM-285 form for each party being served.

What It Does Not Cover

The waiver has real limits. Expert witnesses, whose hourly rates regularly run into the hundreds of dollars, are not covered. Neither are deposition transcripts or photocopying fees. Budget for these separately if your case is likely to require them.

PACER access is another expense to watch. IFP status does not automatically waive PACER fees. You can request an exemption, but each court decides individually whether to grant one, and procedures vary from courthouse to courthouse.⁹ Contact the specific court’s clerk if you need an exemption.

Case Screening Comes With the Status

IFP status comes with a tradeoff that paying litigants do not face: mandatory judicial screening. A court can dismiss your case at any point if it determines your claim is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a valid legal claim, or seeks money from a defendant who has legal immunity.² Waiving fees removes the financial disincentive against filing weak cases, so the court substitutes its own filter.

The practical impact is that IFP cases face earlier and more aggressive scrutiny than fee-paid cases. A judge may read your complaint before the defendant even knows it exists and throw it out. Plenty of IFP cases survive and produce real results, but your complaint needs to clearly state facts that, if true, would entitle you to relief. Vague grievances or complaints against the wrong defendant will not survive.

Prisoners Face Different Rules

Prisoners can file IFP, but the rules are significantly different. The Prison Litigation Reform Act changed the structure: even with IFP status, a prisoner must still pay the full filing fee, just in installments rather than upfront.²

The court calculates an initial partial fee equal to 20% of either the average monthly deposits to the prisoner’s trust account or the average monthly balance over the preceding six months, whichever is greater. After that payment, the facility deducts 20% of the prisoner’s monthly income and forwards it to the court whenever the account balance exceeds $10, continuing until the full fee is paid. A prisoner with no money at all cannot be blocked from filing. The case proceeds and payments begin whenever funds become available.²

The Three-Strikes Rule

A prisoner who has had three or more federal lawsuits or appeals dismissed as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim loses the ability to file IFP entirely. After three strikes, the full filing fee must be paid upfront before the court will accept a new case.² Dismissals that happened before the PLRA took effect still count.

The only exception is imminent danger of serious physical injury. A prisoner who can show a current, specific, and ongoing threat to their physical safety can file IFP regardless of accumulated strikes. The danger must exist at the time of filing, not in the past, and must be connected to the claims in the lawsuit. Courts have recognized threats such as untreated serious medical conditions and ongoing failure to protect from assault as sufficient, but general complaints about prison conditions without a specific personal risk typically do not qualify.

IFP on Appeal

If you were granted IFP status at the trial court level, that status carries forward automatically when you appeal. You do not need to file a new application unless the district court certifies that your appeal is not taken in good faith or finds you are no longer entitled to IFP status. If the court blocks IFP status on appeal, it must put its reasons in writing.¹⁰

If the district court denies your request to proceed as IFP on appeal, you have 30 days to file a motion directly with the court of appeals. That motion must include a copy of your original financial affidavit and the district court’s written reasons for the denial. The appellate court then makes its own independent determination.¹⁰ For cases reaching the U.S. Supreme Court, the process starts over with a fresh motion for leave to proceed IFP, a supporting affidavit or declaration, and your petition for certiorari.⁵

State Court Is Different

Everything above applies to federal court. If you are filing in state court, every state offers some form of fee waiver for indigent litigants, but the eligibility thresholds, required forms, and procedures vary widely. Income cutoffs range from 125% to 200% of the federal poverty guidelines depending on the state, and some states use entirely different criteria. Filing fees in state courts of general jurisdiction run from $75 to $500 before any waiver. The application process is broadly similar, with a financial disclosure form and a judge’s decision, but the specific paperwork differs. Ask the clerk of the court where you plan to file. Most state court clerks can hand you the correct fee waiver forms and explain the local requirements.

1
Federal Register. Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1915 – Proceedings in Forma Pauperis
3
United States Courts. Application to Proceed in District Court Without Prepaying Fees or Costs (Short Form)
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1746 – Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury
5
Supreme Court of the United States. Guide for Prospective Indigent Petitioners for Writs of Certiorari
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1914 – District Court Filing and Miscellaneous Fees
7
United States Courts. District Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule
8
U.S. Marshals Service. Service of Process
9
PACER. Options to Access Records if You Cannot Afford PACER Fees
10
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 24 – Proceeding in Forma Pauperis