(PC) Garcia v. Folks ( 2020 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 RAUL GARCIA, No. 2:14-cv-2378 JAM DB P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 F. FOLKS, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff, a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a civil rights action, has requested 18 appointment of counsel. Plaintiff argues that the limitations on prisoners’ access to the law 19 library due to the COVID-19 pandemic have made preparing for trial extremely difficult. 20 The United States Supreme Court has ruled that district courts lack authority to require 21 counsel to represent indigent prisoners in § 1983 cases. Mallard v. United States Dist. Court, 490 22 U.S. 296, 298 (1989). In certain exceptional circumstances, the district court may request the 23 voluntary assistance of counsel pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(1). Terrell v. Brewer, 935 F.2d 24 1015, 1017 (9th Cir. 1991); Wood v. Housewright, 900 F.2d 1332, 1335-36 (9th Cir. 1990). 25 The test for exceptional circumstances requires the court to evaluate the plaintiff’s 26 likelihood of success on the merits and the ability of the plaintiff to articulate his claims pro se in 27 light of the complexity of the legal issues involved. See Wilborn v. Escalderon, 789 F.2d 1328, 28 1331 (9th Cir. 1986); Weygandt v. Look, 718 F.2d 952, 954 (9th Cir. 1983). Circumstances wOAOe 6 LIT UV □□□ EAINIT ER RAMU EI ee PAY ee 1 | common to most prisoners, such as lack of legal education and limited law library access, do not 2 | establish exceptional circumstances that would warrant a request for voluntary assistance of 3 | counsel. The court does not find the required exceptional circumstances present at this time. 4 | Plaintiff's filings show that he can manage the legal work currently required quite well. In 5 | addition, a trial date has not yet been set. 6 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiff's motion for the appointment of 7 | counsel (ECF No. 158) is denied without prejudice to its renewal at a later date. 8 || Dated: June 12, 2020 9 10 ll ORAH BARNES UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 DLB:9 19 || DB/prisoner-civil rights/garc2378.31(4) 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28