UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTIT CAROLINA EASTERN DIVISION No. 4:20-CV-100-BO DE DE COLBERT. ) ) Plaintiff. ) ) v. ) ORDER ) ANDREW SAUL, Commissioner of Social ) Security, ) ) Defendant. )

This cause comes before the Court sua sponte. Plaintiff initiated this action on June 5, 2020. [DE 1] On August 10. 2020, this Court adopted United States Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers’s memorandum and recommendation and denied plaintiff's motion to proceed in forma pauperis. [DE 7]. The Court also granted her attorney’s motion to withdraw for good cause shown. Id. Plaintiff was ordered to pay the filing fees and file a notice of self-representation or cause counsel to appear by September 10, 2020 and September |, 2020. respectively. /d. She has not done so. “The authority of a court to dismiss sua sponte for lack of prosecution has generally been considered an ‘inherent power.” Link v. Wabash R.R. Co.,

(1962). The Fourth Circuit requires trial courts to consider four factors before dismissing a case for failure to prosecute: “(1) the plaintiffs degree of personal responsibility: (2) the amount of prejudice caused the defendant; (3) the presence of a drawn out history of deliberately proceeding in a dilatory fashion: and (4) the effectiveness of sanctions less drastic than dismissal.” Hiflig v. Comm r.

, 174 (4th Cir. 1990). Plaintiff here is pro se and therefore entirely responsible for her failure to prosecute. It is prejudicial to defendant to have a case hanging in limbo with no end in

sight because plaintiff neglects her duty to prosecute her case. Because plaintiff has failed to pay filing fees and to file a notice of self-representation or cause counsel to appear, no sanction less drastic than dismissal would be effective. Accordingly, this Court swa sponte orders the DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE of the instant case for failure to prosecute. The clerk is directed to close the file and enter judgment accordingly.

SO ORDERED, this wf day of November, 2020.

TERRENCE W. BOYLE / CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE