(PC) Dennis v. Castrillo ( 2020 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 ROME ROBERT DENNIS, No. 2:19-cv-0828-JAM-EFB P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 CASTRILLO, 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. On September 16, 2020, plaintiff filed a letter which the court construes as a 19 request for appointment of counsel. So construed, the request is denied. 20 District courts lack authority to require counsel to represent indigent prisoners in section 21 1983 cases. Mallard v. United States Dist. Court, 490 U.S. 296, 298 (1989). In exceptional 22 circumstances, the court may request an attorney to voluntarily to represent such a plaintiff. See 23 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(1); Terrell v. Brewer, 935 F.2d 1015, 1017 (9th Cir. 1991); Wood v. 24 Housewright, 900 F.2d 1332, 1335-36 (9th Cir. 1990). When determining whether “exceptional 25 circumstances” exist, the court must consider the likelihood of success on the merits as well as the 26 ability of the plaintiff to articulate his claims pro se in light of the complexity of the legal issues 27 involved. Palmer v. Valdez, 560 F.3d 965, 970 (9th Cir. 2009). Having considered those factors, 28 the court finds there are no exceptional circumstances in this case. wOASe UVVVM OLSON RAT MVOC oo PO ete OY Ov 1 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiffs request for appointment of 2 || counsel (ECF No. 28) is denied. 3 | DATED: September 21, 2020. tid, PDEA 4 EDMUND F. BRENNAN 5 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28