Claiborne v. Blauser et al

Filing 82

ORDER signed by Magistrate Judge Edmund F. Brennan on 4/29/13 DENYING 81 Motion to Appoint Counsel. (Dillon, M)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 DENNIS GERALD CLAIBORNE, Plaintiff, 11 12 vs. 13 No. 2:10-cv-2427 LKK EFB P BLAUSER, et al., 14 15 16 Defendants. ORDER / Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding without counsel in an action brought under 42 17 U.S.C. § 1983. He requests that the court appoint counsel. District courts lack authority to 18 require counsel to represent indigent prisoners in section 1983 cases. Mallard v. United States 19 Dist. Court, 490 U.S. 296, 298 (1989). In exceptional circumstances, the court may request an 20 attorney to voluntarily to represent such a plaintiff. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(1); Terrell v. 21 Brewer, 935 F.2d 1015, 1017 (9th Cir. 1991); Wood v. Housewright, 900 F.2d 1332, 1335-36 22 (9th Cir. 1990). When determining whether “exceptional circumstances” exist, the court must 23 consider the likelihood of success on the merits as well as the ability of the plaintiff to articulate 24 his claims pro se in light of the complexity of the legal issues involved. Palmer v. Valdez, 560 25 F.3d 965, 970 (9th Cir. 2009). Having considered those factors, the court finds there are no 26 exceptional circumstances in this case. 1 1 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiff’s request for appointment of 2 counsel, Dckt. No. 81, is denied. 3 DATED: April 29, 2013. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2

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