Wallace v. Ducart

Filing 47

ORDER denying 45 Motion to Appoint Counsel. (Illston, Susan) (Filed on 5/7/2018)

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1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 GEORGE ELLIS WALLACE, Plaintiff, 8 9 10 United States District Court Northern District of California 11 Case No. 16-cv-03798-SI ORDER v. Re: Dkt. No. 45 C. E. DUCART, et al., Defendants. 12 13 14 Plaintiff has requested that counsel be appointed to represent him in this action. Docket 15 No. 45. A district court has the discretion under 28 U.S.C. §1915(e)(1) to designate counsel to 16 represent an indigent civil litigant in exceptional circumstances. See Wilborn v. Escalderon, 789 17 F.2d 1328, 1331 (9th Cir. 1986). This requires an evaluation of both the likelihood of success on 18 the merits and the ability of the plaintiff to articulate his claims pro se in light of the complexity of 19 the legal issues involved. See id. Neither of these factors is dispositive and both must be viewed 20 together before deciding on a request for counsel under § 1915(e)(1). Here, exceptional 21 circumstances requiring the appointment of counsel are not evident at this time. Plaintiff has been 22 able to adequately articulate his claims, and there appears to be a low likelihood of success on the 23 merits. The request for appointment of counsel is DENIED. Docket No. 45. 24 Plaintiff stated in his request for counsel that he has limited law library access due to a 25 prison lockdown. To aid him with at least some of his research for an upcoming deadline, within 26 seven days of the date of this order, defendants must mail to plaintiff a copy of all the cases and 27 other legal authorities they cited in their supplement to their motion for summary judgment. 28 1 The court now resets the briefing schedule on defendants’ supplement to their motion for 2 summary judgment as follows: Plaintiff must file and serve on defense counsel any supplement to 3 his opposition to the motion for summary judgment no later than June 15, 2018. Defendants must 4 file and serve any supplement to their reply brief no later than June 29, 2018. 5 6 7 8 IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: May 7, 2018 ______________________________________ SUSAN ILLSTON United States District Judge 9 10 United States District Court Northern District of California 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2

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