Angela Bernhardt v. Los Angeles County Lloyd W. Pellman, Individually and in His Official Capacity

Angela Bernhardt has sued the County of Los Angeles and its County Counsel, claiming that the County has a policy of settling civil rights cases only for “a lump sum, including all attorney’s fees” that violates both an implied federal right under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 and the Supremacy Clause. In summary, Bernhardt contends the County’s lump sum settlement policy has made it impossible for her to retain coun'sel to represent her in litigating her federal claims against the County. This interlocutory appeal is before us following our decision in Bernhardt v. County of Los Angeles, 279 F.3d 862 (9th Cir.2002), in which we held that Bernhardt had standing to assert her claims in limited respects and remanded her case to the district court for further proceedings. Although the merits of those claims remain pending before the district court where Bernhardt is appearing pro se, we are now asked to determine whether the district court properly denied Bernhardt a preliminary injunction barring the County’s lump sum policy so that she can obtain counsel to represent her in those district court proceedings.

We hold, first, that our prior decision does not foreclose Bernhardt from seeking a…