(PC) Johnson v. Ruiz ( 2020 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 PAUL SAMUEL JOHNSON, No. 2:20-cv-0291-JAM-EFB P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 RUIZ, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding without counsel in an action brought under 42 18 U.S.C. § 1983. He requests appointment of counsel as well as an extension of time to file his 19 objections to the May 4, 2020 findings and recommendations. 20 District courts may authorize the appointment of counsel to represent an indigent civil 21 litigant in certain exceptional circumstances. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(1); Terrell v. Brewer, 935 22 F.2d 1015, 1017 (9th Cir.1991); Wood v. Housewright, 900 F.2d 1332, 1335–36 (9th Cir.1990); 23 Richards v. Harper, 864 F.2d 85, 87 (9th Cir. 1988). In considering whether exceptional 24 circumstances exist, the court must evaluate (1) the plaintiff’s likelihood of success on the merits; 25 and (2) the ability of the plaintiff to articulate her claims pro se in light of the complexity of the 26 legal issues involved. Terrell, 935 F.2d at 1017. The court cannot conclude that plaintiff’s 27 likelihood of success, the complexity of the issues, or the degree of plaintiff’s ability to articulate 28 his claims amount to exceptional circumstances justifying the appointment of counsel at this time. wOAOe 2 EYL VAI RUC et PIR Ore PAY eV 1 | The court will, however, grant plaintiff’ s request for an extension of time. 2 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiffs request for the appointment of 3 || counsel (ECF No. 20) is denied and his request for an extension of time (ECF No. 20) is granted. 4 | Plaintiff shall file his objections to the findings and recommendations within thirty days from the 5 || date of service of this order. 6 | DATED: May 18, 2020. Yr b / A A ZL YY 5 7 EDMUND F. BRENNAN 3 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28