John T. O'reilly, and Contemporary Mission, Inc. v. The New York Times Company

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding a plaintiffs motion to proceed pro se to be timely, though filed after a notice of motion for summary judgment
• noting that an order denying a motion to proceed pro se was conclusive because “[t]here [was] nothing to indicate that [the court]’s denial of [plaintiff]’s application [was] in any way tentative, informal, or incomplete” (internal quotation marks omitted)
• describing a motion to proceed pro se by a civil litigant made “well before trial” as being asserted “in [a] timely fashion”
• discussing circumstances to limit self- representation such as (i) timing and disruption of the case and (ii) hybrid representations, meaning the party wants to proceed pro se and be represented by an attorney simultaneously
• “[A] party’s right to discharge counsel prior to trial and represent himself does not require any showing of inadequacy.”
• “Thus, a party seeking 17 to assert [her] statutory right of self-representation must clearly and unequivocally discharge any 18 lawyer previously retained.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).