Barden v. King County Sheriff et al

Filing 16

ORDER denying Plaintiff's 11 Motion to Appoint Counsel, by Hon. Brian A Tsuchida.**2 PAGE(S), PRINT ALL**(Jared Barden, Prisoner ID: 875457)(SWT)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7 8 JARED MATTHEW BARDEN, Plaintiff, 9 10 Case No. 2:17-226 JCC-BAT ORDER DENYING MOTION TO APPOINT COUNSEL v. 11 ANDREW SKAAR, et al., 12 Defendants. 13 Jared Matthew Barden, who is proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis in this civil rights 14 action, has filed a motion to appoint counsel. Dkt. 11. For the following reasons, the Court 15 DENIES the motion. 16 Generally, a person has no right to counsel in a civil action. See Campbell v. Burt, 141 17 F.3d 927, 931 (9th Cir. 1998). The Court may appoint counsel for indigent civil litigants under 18 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(1), but only under “exceptional circumstances.” Agyeman v. Corrections 19 Corp. of Am., 390 F.3d 1101, 1103 (9th Cir. 2004). When determining whether “exceptional 20 circumstances” exist, the Court considers “the likelihood of success on the merits as well as the 21 ability of the [plaintiff] to articulate his claims pro se in light of the complexity of the legal issues 22 involved.” Weygandt v. Look, 718 F.2d 952, 954 (9th Cir. 1983). 23 Mr. Barden states that he requires that appointment of counsel because he is indigent and ORDER DENYING MOTION TO APPOINT COUNSEL - 1 1 is unable to hire counsel on his own. Dkt. 11. This is not an extraordinary circumstance 2 warranting the appointment of counsel. In addition, plaintiff has not shown that he is likely to 3 prevail on the merits of his claim. Appointment of counsel is therefore not justified at this time, 4 and the Court DENIES the motion (Dkt. 11). 5 The Clerk shall provide a copy of this Order to plaintiff and counsel for defendants. 6 DATED this 3rd day of May, 2017. 7 8 A BRIAN A. TSUCHIDA United States Magistrate Judge 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ORDER DENYING MOTION TO APPOINT COUNSEL - 2

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