Legal Question in Business Law in California
As a pro se, I filed a complaint in the U.S. Court Southern District of California for breach of contract and misuse of intellectual property against a S&P 500 company. The docket number is 11-CV-00424. The name of the defendant is Snap-on Incorporated and the corporation I 100% own, Novel Wares, Inc., a California sub C corporation, is the plaintiff. I filed a motion with the court for court appointed council for the matter herein. Do I have to wait for a judge's order to have court appointed council?
4 Answers from Attorneys
You are not entitled to a court appointed attorney in a civil case. Your corporation must hire it's own attorney or the case will be dismissed. Corporations cannot represent themselves in federal court.
It's a misdemeanor crime to attempt to represent a corporation in court unless you're a licensed attorney. More to the point, if you are serious about winning your case you'll need a lawyer.
Courts do not appoint lawyers in civil cases. Moreover, corporations must be represented by attorneys. Since you are evidently not a lawyer and since you filed the case on a corporation's behalf, the case will likely be dismissed unless -- maybe -- the corporation hires a lawyer right away.
The court will likely notice this problem on its own when it reviews your application for appointed counsel. If it doesn't, the other side will point out the problem.
Appointed counsel are only available in criminal cases, not lawsuits. As the other attorneys said, you have to hire an attorney to represent a corporation, otherwise the court will throw the case out.
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