Opinion
No. 99 C 3113.
November 26, 2001.
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Plaintiff moves for appointment of counsel. He represents that he has gone to 17 lawyers with, apparently, no one willing to undertake the case. We are satisfied, moreover, that plaintiff does not have the financial ability to engage an attorney unless that attorney is willing to represent him on a contingent basis. We refer, then, back to the court's Memorandum Opinion and Order of October 19, 2001, where we said we had no idea whether or not he has a possibly meritorious claim, other than the negative inference from his inability to engage counsel. We there suggested what he might do to provide some indication that he has a meritorious claim.
Plaintiff has not done so. For all we know his evidence is that his mother would testify that he was fed Neo-Mull-Soy exclusively for eight or nine weeks in 1979, and he and his mother would testify that he has a speech problem. That alone does not provide the basis for a claim. We suggested a first step in establishing the possibility of a claim, which depended upon his medical records when he was an Infant. They were supposed to have been produced months ago, but plaintiff has still not done so. He should furnish copies of those records to the court as part of his motion, and he should do so within two weeks (or, by then, explain to the court why he needs some additional time to make that filing). For now, we will continue his motion, but we also advise plaintiff that the motion will be denied unless he can establish that he possibly has a meritorious claim by that means or another.