Case ID: f-appx_451/html/0629-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Kevin JORDAN, Appellant, v. Brian CARTER; Matt Rodgers, Appellees.
    No. 11-1940.
    United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
    Submitted: Dec. 23, 2011.
    Filed: Jan. 12, 2012.
    Patrick E. Ingram, Mears Law Office, Iowa City, IA, for Appellant.
    Kevin Jordan, Anamosa State Penitentiary, Anamosa, IA, pro se.
    Gary D. Goudelock, Jr., City Attorney’s Office Legal Department City Hall, Des Moines, IA, for Appellees.
    Before LOKEN, BYE, and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM.

Iowa inmate Kevin Jordan appeals following the district court’s entry of judgment upon an adverse jury verdict in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. He argues that his counsel was ineffective and that he was not permitted to be present at his trial. We conclude Jordan presents no basis for a new trial. There is no constitutional or statutory right to effective assistance of counsel in a civil case, see Taylor v. Dickel, 293 F.3d 427, 431 (8th Cir.2002), and plaintiffs in a civil rights case generally have no constitutional right to be present at the trial of their claims. Am. Inmate Paralegal Assoc. v. Cline, 859 F.2d 59, 62 (8th Cir.1988) (per curiam). The grant of leave to proceed in forma pauperis does not automatically entitle a civil litigant to a transcript at government expense. See 28 U.S.C. § 753(f); Rhodes v. Corps of Eng’rs, 589 F.2d 358, 359 (8th Cir.1978). Accordingly, we affirm the judgment. See 8th Cir. R. 47B. 
      
      . The Honorable Ronald E. Longstaff, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa.