What is a Civil Rights Lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983?

At least two to three times per week, we receive telephone calls from prisoners or the family of a prisoner who wants to sue prison officials for injuries received in prison or for other rights they believe were violated.

People who suffer harm or injury due to the wrongful conduct or inaction of state employees or officials can file a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil lawsuit in federal court to seek monetary compensation from the responsible people.  

42 U.S.C. § 1983 states: “Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in any action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.”

In other words, a person who brings a § 1983 lawsuit must prove the following: (1) a violation of (2) rights protected by the U.S. Constitution or a federal statute, (3) that was caused (4) by the conduct of a “person” (5) who was acting “under color of state law.” Crumpton v. Gates (9th Cir. 1991) 947 F. 2d 1418, 1420.

People may also use this statute to seek a court order (injunction) requiring that prison staff stop unlawful conduct or to perform their lawful duties.  In addition, people can use a § 1983 suit to ask for declaratory relief by which the court states each party’s rights and liabilities. 

Anyone contemplating such a lawsuit should be aware that the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA), which took effect April 26, 1996, imposed significant limits on § 1983 suits. 42 U.S.C. § 1997e.

One should be aware that § 1983 cases are not the only types of actions that can be brought to seek either money damages of injunctive or declaratory relief.  One can also obtain injunctive and declaratory relief regarding prison conditions by filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus or for a writ of mandate in state court.  One can also bring a state tort lawsuits for money damages.

Finding a competent and savvy lawyer can mean the difference between success and failure in a federal civil rights action.  The law is complex, and these suits are governed by many special rules of civil procedure and local court rules.  The task of learning and following all the laws and rules, investigating the facts, and gathering evidence for a trial can be very difficult for anyone, particularly someone without legal training. 

There are some incentives for lawyers to take civil rights cases for people in prison.  A lawyer may represent a person based on a contingency fee arrangement, in which the lawyer agrees to represent the person in exchange for a percentage (usually between 33 and 40 percent) of any money recovered.  Also, in federal civil rights cases, the law allows the winning party to collect attorney fees from the losing side. 

Under either of these arrangements, the attorney will only get paid if they win the lawsuit, and the amount of fees may depend on how much money the person wins. Thus, attorneys are likely to be interested only in cases with a good chance of success and winning significant damages. 

Even with the possibility of attorney fees, people may find it difficult to obtain representation.  Some lawyers are discouraged by the difficulty of investigating a case that occurred in a prison, the time it takes to visit a client in prison, or the complicated legal principles that govern such cases.  Although these obstacles are regularly overcome by the few lawyers willing to take some prison cases, the demand for lawyers for these cases far exceeds the supply.

A person who wants to file a federal civil rights lawsuit for money damages should try contacting attorneys who represent plaintiffs in “personal injury,” “police brutality,” or “civil rights” actions.

If a person in prison or their family has the money to hire a lawyer, they should be careful in deciding whether the lawsuit can win and whether the lawyer is competent and reliable.  There are unethical people, both lawyers and people pretending to be lawyers, who are willing to take money even where there is no chance that a case will succeed or result in any benefit to the person in prison.

At the very least, the person in prison may be able to get someone on the outside to check the attorney’s disciplinary status on the California State Bar Association website at www.calbar.ca.gov.  People who hire a lawyer should obtain a written fee agreement and retainer contract and keep detailed notes of their communications with the attorney.

Sometimes a person will have to go ahead with filing a § 1983 lawsuit without an attorney, as a “pro se” or “pro per” plaintiff.  Once the initial papers for a lawsuit are filed in federal court, a person who has no money can ask the court to look for a lawyer to take the case.  Some federal district courts in California have panels of attorneys willing to accept civil rights cases for people in prison.

While this article appears on our website, credit is owed to the Prison Law Office for most of the information in this article from their great treatise, California Prison and Parole Law Handbook.  We thank them for their valuable work.