Williams v. Howard

Background

The court considered Terrence T. Williams’s requests to waive court fees and to appoint counsel. The opinion describes the case as pro se prisoner litigation, meaning Williams was litigating without a lawyer.

Court-fee request

The court denied Williams’s request to waive the remaining filing fee. In an earlier order, the court had told Williams that he owed the unpaid balance of the statutory filing fee, $350. The court explained that under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2), a prisoner allowed to proceed without paying the full fee upfront must still make monthly payments equal to 20 percent of the preceding month’s income credited to the prisoner’s account until the full filing fee is paid. The court stated that Williams had to pay the fee regardless of the case’s outcome and according to the procedure in that statute.

Request for appointed counsel

The court explained that a person representing himself in a civil case does not have an automatic statutory or constitutional right to appointed counsel. Appointment of counsel in a civil case is within the district court’s discretion. After reviewing Williams’s amended complaint and other filings, the court concluded that the case was not significantly more complicated than other prisoner cases filed without lawyers in that court. It therefore found that appointment of counsel did not appear warranted at that time.

Order

The court ordered that Williams’s motion seeking a waiver of court fees and attorney representation was DENIED. It separately ordered that his motion for attorney representation was DENIED. Judge Becky R. Thorson, a United States Magistrate Judge, signed the order.