What Happens If a Petitioner Is Deemed Insolvent by the Court ?

In Caldwell v. Estate of McDowell, 507 So. 2d 607 (Fla. 1987), the Court held that the petitioner had a clear legal right to be deemed insolvent and thus the district court had a duty to reinstate the appeal it had dismissed for failure to pay the filing fee. Later mandamus cases from this Court have also required district courts to reinstate actions dismissed for failure to pay filing fees. See: Mitchell v. Moore, 786 So. 2d 521 (Fla. 2001) (instructing district court to reinstate appeal it had dismissed when inmate appellant failed to comply with the copy requirement of the Prisoner Indigency Statute); Quigley v. Butterworth, 708 So. 2d 270 (Fla. 1998) (instructing district court that had dismissed appeal due to trial court's denial of indigency to consider action in the district court as an appeal of the trial court's denial of indigency); McFadden v. Fourth District Court of Appeal, 682 So. 2d 1068 (Fla. 1996) (instructing district court to reinstate appeal it had dismissed when inmate appellant failed to either pay a filing fee or obtain an order of indigency from the trial court).