Opinion
Case No. 16 C 10816
01-11-2017
ARDAMIS DARRELL SIMS, Plaintiff, v. COUNTY OF COOK, et al., Defendants.
MEMORANDUM ORDER
This Court's December 7, 2016 memorandum order ("Order"), although it granted the In Forma Pauperis Application ("Application") filed by pro se pretrial detainee Ardamis Darrell Sims ("Sims"), denied Sims' contemporaneously filed Motion For Appointment of Counsel ("Motion") because of its legal inadequacy. In the latter respect this Court transmitted another set of the Clerk's-Office-supplied form of Motion to Sims together with a copy of the Order, concluding the Order with this paragraph:
That grant was made under the special provisions prescribed by 28 U.S.C. § 1915 for persons in custody seeking in forma pauperis status. --------
If Sims fails to complete and transmit two counterparts of that form to the Clerk's Office in time to be received there on or before December 23, 2016, this action will be dismissed for want of prosecution . If however he timely submits the properly-filled-out forms, this Court will take appropriate action to call upon a member of the trial bar to assist Sims.
Now this Court's most recent update of its periodic check on motions pending in cases assigned to its calendar has revealed that Sims did complete and file a renewed Motion (that Motion was received in the Clerk's Office on December 19, though no judge's copy was transmitted to this Court). Accordingly this Court has obtained the name of this member of the District Court's trial bar, who is designated to act as Sims' counsel in this action:
Jonathan Klee Baum, Esq.
Katten Muchin Rosenman, L.L.P.
525 West Monroe Street
Chicago, Illinois 60661
Phone: 312- 902-5200
Email: jonathan.baum@kattenlaw.com.
This action is set for an initial status hearing to be held at 9:15 a.m. March 1, 2017, which should allow the newly-designated counsel time (1) to communicate with Sims about the case, (2) to arrange for service of process through the U.S. Marshals Service and (3) to attend the status hearing to discuss further proceedings in the action. In that last respect, if defense counsel has filed an appearance before the status hearing date, attorney Baum should make an effort to communicate with that counsel as well. Finally, as the Order has suggested, attorney Baum may wish to consider the need to file an appropriate Amended Complaint to replace Sims' prolix effort that was essentially produced by a fellow inmate -- a "jailhouse lawyer."
/s/_________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge Date: January 11, 2017