Keon V. Lipscomb v. Ezekiel Owens, Jashawn Sherrill, and Ethan Kempfer

Summary

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois grants Keon V. Lipscomb’s motion for a settlement conference and denies his motion for recruitment of counsel. The court concludes that Lipscomb had not sufficiently demonstrated reasonable efforts to obtain counsel and remained capable of representing himself at that stage of the litigation.

Holdings

1. The motion for a settlement conference was granted because defense counsel had authority to negotiate and the represented defendants were willing to participate in a global settlement conference.
2. Recruitment of counsel was denied because Plaintiff did not provide sufficient information to establish a reasonable effort to obtain counsel and, in any event, remained capable of litigating the case at its current stage.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the court should grant Plaintiff's request for a settlement conference.
2. Whether Plaintiff was entitled to recruitment of counsel under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(1) and the Pruitt two-part test.

Disposition

other