Art. 5183.Affidavits of Poverty; Documentation; Order

Getting the poverty privilege takes more than an unsupported claim of being broke. Article 5183 requires the applicant to raise the request in the first pleading filed in the case, or, if the need arises later, by an ex parte written motion, and to attach specific supporting documents to that request.

Two affidavits anchor the application. The applicant's own affidavit states that they cannot pay court costs in advance, or as they accrue, or furnish security for them, because of poverty and lack of means, along with whatever documentation supports that claim. A second affidavit, from a third person other than the applicant's own attorney, has to confirm that the affiant knows the applicant, knows the applicant's financial condition, and believes the applicant truly cannot pay. This outside corroboration keeps the privilege from resting on the applicant's word alone.

Once the application and affidavits are filed, the court has three options: grant it outright, letting the applicant litigate without prepaying costs; deny it, with written reasons explaining the denial; or set the matter for a contradictory hearing where the question gets argued out. Article 5183 also builds in a shortcut for applicants who can show they receive public assistance benefits, or whose income falls at or below one hundred twenty-five percent of the federal poverty level: that showing creates a rebuttable presumption of entitlement to the privilege, which the court can only overcome by stating written reasons for finding the presumption rebutted. Even after the privilege is granted, the court retains the power to reconsider its own order on its own motion, through a later contradictory hearing.