Gaines

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 JACOBI GAINES, Case No. 23-cv-05386-RMI

Plaintiff,

ORDER

v. 9 Re: Dkt. No. 22 K. DE LA FUENTE, Defendant.

12 Plaintiff, a detainee proceeding pro se, filed a civil rights complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The Court ordered service and is waiting for a dispositive motion from Defendant. Presently pending is Plaintiff’s motion to appoint advisory counsel to help prepare for trial. There is no constitutional right to counsel in a civil case, Lassiter v. Dep’t of Social Services, 452 U.S. 18, 25 (1981), and although district courts may “request” that counsel represent a litigant who is proceeding in forma pauperis, as plaintiff is here, see 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(1), that does not give the courts the power to make “coercive appointments of counsel.” Mallard v. United States Dist. Court, 490 U.S. 296, 310 (1989). The Ninth Circuit has held that a district court may ask counsel to represent an indigent litigant only in “exceptional circumstances,” the…