Chapter 16
The Litigation Process
Chapter Overview
This chapter focuses on litigation issues particular to the subject matter or litigants in prison/jail cases. Much but not all of the Chapter addresses provisions of the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act.
Featured Opinions
- Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009)
- Booth v. Churner, 532 U.S. 731 (2001)
- Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519 (1972)
- Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S. 199 (2007)
- Lomax v. Ortiz-Marquez, 140 S.Ct. 1721 (2020)
- Perttu v. Richards, 605 U.S. 460 (2025)
- Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516 (2002)
- Ramirez v. Collier, 595 U.S. 411 (2022)
- Reed-Bey v. Pramstaller, 603 F.3d 322 (6th Cir. 2010)
- Rivera v. Allin, 144 F.3d 719 (11th Cir. 1998)
- Ross v. Blake, 578 U.S. 632 (2016)
- Ross v. Bock, No. 16–cv–8672 (2017)
- Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81 (2006)
- Valentine v. Collier, 978 F.3d 154 (5th Cir. 2020)
Statutes, Treaties, and Regulations
- Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 1997 et seq. (Posted version redlined to show changes since 1980 enactment)
- Prison Litigation Reform Act, Pub. L. No. 104–134 (1996). See in particular: 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, 28 U.S.C. § 1915, 28 U.S.C. § 1915A
- Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) regulations
- For all PREA regulations see: DOJ PREA Rule, 28 C.F.R. Part 115; DHS PREA Rule, 6 C.F.R. Part 115 (see in particular 28 C.F.R. § 115.52(b)(3); 28 C.F.R. § 115.52(c); 28 C.F.R. § 115.52(b)(1)).
- Court filing fees
- 28 U.S.C. § 1914
- U.S. District Court Misc. Fee Schedule (Dec. 1, 2023)
- U.S. Court of Appeals Misc. Fee Schedule (Dec. 1, 2023)
- Criminal Justice Act (CJA), 18 U.S.C. § 3006A
- Office of the U.S. Courts, Guide to Judiciary Policy, Vol. 7: Defender Services (updated 2025)
Excerpted Sources & Supplemental Documents
- Senator Jon Kyl, Top 10 Frivolous Inmate Lawsuits Nationally, 141 Cong. Rec. S14611–01 (Sept. 29, 1995). See p. S14628-9.
- Margo Schlanger & Betsy Ginsberg, Pandemic Rules: COVID-19 and the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s Exhaustion Requirement, 72 Case Western Res. L. Rev. (2022)
Lived Experiences
Data & Figures
Additional Reading
Process of Litigation
- Richard H. Frankel & Alistair E. Newbern, Prisoners and Pleading, 94 Wash. U.L. Rev. 899 (2017)
- Rachel Poser, Why It’s Nearly Impossible for Prisoners to Sue Prisons, The New Yorker (May 2016)
- Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies 2014, Highlights from the U.S. PIAAC Survey of Incarcerated Adults: Their Skills, Work Experience, Education, and Training (Nov. 2016)
- Alexander A. Reinert, Measuring the Impact of Plausibility Pleading, 101 Va. L. Rev. 2117 (2015)
- Alysia Santo, Suing from Prison, The Marshall Project (Feb. 2015)
- Louis Schexnayder & Andrew Cohen, His Appeal in Louisiana Was a Sham Proceeding. But the High Court Won’t Review the Case, The Marshall Project (Dec. 2019)
- Margo Schlanger, Inmate Litigation, 116 Harv. L. Rev. 1555 (2003)
- Rory K. Schneider, Illiberal Construction of Pro Se Pleadings, 159 U. Pa. L. Rev. 585 (2011)
Grievance Systems & Administrative Exhaustion
- John Boston, The PLRA Handbook: Law and Practice Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (2022)
- Lynn S. Branham et al., Am. Bar Assoc. Criminal Justice Section, Limiting the Burdens of Pro Se Inmate Litigation: A Technical-Assistance Manual for Courts, Correctional Officials, and Attorneys General (1997)
- Lynn S. Branham, The Prison Litigation Reform Act’s Enigmatic Exhaustion Requirement: What It Means and What Congress, Courts and Correctional Officials Can Learn from It, 86 Cornell L. Rev. 483 (2001)
- Kitty Calavita & Valerie Jenness, Appealing to Justice: Prisoner Grievances, Rights, and Carceral Logic (2014)
- Donald P. Lay, Exhaustion of Grievance Procedures for State Prisoners Under Section 1997e of the Civil Rights Act, 71 Iowa L. Rev. 935 (1986)
- Michigan Law Prison Information Project, Prison and Jail Grievance Policies: Lessons from a Fifty-State Survey (Oct. 2015)
- Dora Schriro, Correcting Corrections: Missouri’s Parallel Universe, in Sentencing and Corrections: Issues for the 21st Century (May 2000)
Prison Litigation Reform Act
- ABA, Criminal Justice Section, Report to the House of Delegates, Rep. 102B (2007)
- ACLU National Prison Project, The Top Ten Non-Frivolous Lawsuits Filed by Prisoners (Feb. 11, 1996)
- Andrea Fenster & Margo Schlanger, Slamming the Courthouse Door: 25 years of evidence for repealing the Prison Litigation Reform Act, Prison Policy Initiative (Apr. 2021)
- Human Rights Watch, No Equal Justice: The Prison Litigation Reform Act in the United States (2009)
- Jon O. Newman, Foreword: Pro Se Prisoner Litigation: Looking for Needles in Haystacks, 62 Brook. L. Rev. 519 (1996)
- Margo Schlanger, Inmate Litigation, 116 Harv. L. Rev. 1555 (2003)
- Paul Wright & Dan Pens, Prison Legal News’ Top Ten Non-Frivolous Prisoner Lawsuits, in The Celling of America 58 (Daniel Burton-Rose with Dan Pens & Paul Wright eds., 1998)