Burke v. Lewis

DURRANT, Justice:

¶ 1 In addressing this petition for extraordinary relief, we must determine whether a district court may, without express authorization by statute or rule, appropriately appoint counsel for an absent, nonindigent civil litigant. We conclude that, in this case, the district court operated within the bounds of its discretion when it ordered such an appointment. This conclusion is based upon our determination that a court’s inherent power to appoint counsel is not limited to situations involving indigency and our decision that, despite ethical concerns raised by the litigant’s…