(PC) Shaw v. Woods ( 2021 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 10 WILLIAM SHAW, No. 2:20-cv-1980 DB P 11 Plaintiff, 12 v. ORDER 13 WOODS, et al., 14 Defendants. 15 16 Plaintiff, a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a civil rights action, has requested 17 appointment of counsel. Plaintiff argues that he cannot afford counsel, he is unschooled in the 18 law, restrictions on law library use due to the COVID-19 pandemic make conducting legal 19 research difficult, and his case is complex. 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 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. While the court recognizes the difficulties inmates face conducting research during the 4 | COVID-19 pandemic, those difficulties are not unusual — they are faced by inmates in all 5 | California prisons. In the present case, the court does not find the required exceptional 6 | circumstances. 7 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiff's motion for the appointment of 8 || counsel (ECF No. 26) is denied. 9 | Dated: January 7, 2021 10 11 D ORAH BARNES UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 13 14 15 16 | pLB:9 DB/prisoner-civil rights/shaw1980.31 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28