Opinion
No. 09 C 6318.
October 14, 2009
MEMORANDUM ORDER
James Johnson ("Johnson") has submitted a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ("Section 1983") Complaint, using the Clerk's-Office-supplied printed form and setting out his Complaint ¶ IV statement in a detailed handwritten narrative. Johnson names the Cook County Department of Corrections and its dental and medical departments as defendants. Even though those designations are inappropriate targets of a Section 1983 lawsuit, this Court is prepared to have Johnson proceed if he satisfies the necessary conditions for suit by a plaintiff in custody, with the proper defendants to be designated later.
28 U.S.C. § 1915 ("Section 1915") spells out the requirements for suit by a prisoner in custody who wishes to qualify for in forma pauperis treatment, as Johnson does. But in that respect he has not filled out and submitted the Clerk's-Office-supplied form of In Forma Pauperis Application ("Application"), nor a printout of the transactions in his trust fund account at the County Jail for the six-month period from April 1 through September 30 as required by Section 1915(a)(2). As soon as he does so, this Court will be in a position to rule on the Application.
Instead Johnson has tendered only the last page of the Application, which does not provide all the necessary information.
There is another form provided by the Clerk's Office that Johnson may wish to consider: the Motion for Appointment of Counsel ("Motion"). If he qualifies for in forma pauperis treatment under Section 1915, a lawyer can be assigned to represent him (something that will assist not only Johnson and this Court, but also defense counsel, who would then be able to communicate lawyer to lawyer). If Johnson chooses to proceed in that fashion, he must fill in the answer to Paragraph 2 of that form, which calls for him to describe the efforts he has made on his own to obtain a lawyer to represent him.
This Court grants Johnson until October 28, 2009 to file and deliver to this Court the necessary document or documents. If he does not do so, this Court will be compelled to dismiss the Complaint and this action (without prejudice to a possible proper refiling in the future).