Civil Procedure — recruitment of counsel

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Civil

Civil Procedure — recruitment of counsel

It was an abuse of discretion for the district court not to seek counsel for a prisoner proceeding pro se on a deliberate indifference claim.

“The court abused its discretion by failing to explain its reasoning and failing to address all the relevant arguments Dewitt raised. For example, the court characterized Dewitt as fitting within the spectrum of most pro se litigants and said it had considered his personal characteristics, but it did not identify those characteristics. However, the court did not address the challenges that Dewitt, as a blind and indigent prisoner with a tenth-grade education and no legal experience, faced in being able to investigate crucial facts and depose witnesses, doctors, and other allegedly resistant prison personnel. See Pruitt, 503 F.3d at 655 (noting the court ‘should review any information submitted in support of the request for counsel, as well as the pleadings, communications from, and any contact with the plaintiff’); see also Navejar v. Iyiola, 718 F.3d 692, 696 (7th Cir. 2013) (noting judge should have considered plaintiff’s ‘limited education, mental illness, language difficulties, and lack of access to fellow prisoners or other resources for assistance after his transfer from Stateville’). Moreover, the court’s statement that Dewitt ‘has demonstrated familiarity with his claims and the ability to present them’ does not demonstrate that the district court specifically examined Dewitt’s personal ability to litigate the case, versus the ability of the ‘jailhouse lawyer’ who Dewitt said in his motion was helping him. The analysis should be of the plaintiff’s ability to litigate his own claims, and the “fact that an inmate receives assistance from a fellow prisoner should not factor into the decision whether to recruit counsel.” Henderson, 2014 WL 2757473 at *5.”

Reversed and Remanded.

13-2930 Dewitt v. Corizon, Inc.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Lawrence, J., Williams, J.