Edmund Gerard LaCour Jr.
How Judge LaCour rules, drawn from 26 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge LaCour
Edmund Gerard LaCour, Jr. is a judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Appointed by President Donald J. Trump, Judge LaCour received a commission on November 3, 2025.
Judge LaCour's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge LaCour, as published on the court's website (checked October 9, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
Key rules
Filing
Provide an exact courtesy copy within three business days for submissions exceeding 30 pages, including exhibits.
“For all submissions exceeding 30 pages (including exhibits), the filing party must submit, within three business days of filing, an exact courtesy copy”
Discovery
Seek leave before filing a motion about a discovery dispute.
“Parties must seek leave of the court before filing a motion about a discovery dispute.”
Conferences
Conduct the Rule 26(f) conference within 21 days after the initial order.
“no later than 21 days from the date of this order”
Standing orders for every case in this court
Orders the court applies to all of its cases, whichever judge has them, as published on the court's website (checked October 9, 2026).
How Judge LaCour decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
He preserved a negligence claim where the record contained a genuine factual dispute, while narrowing theories that lacked supporting evidence or an independent legal basis.
“because a genuine dispute of material fact exists as to Defendants’ negligence, the Court DENIES summary judgment on that claim.”
For episodic impairments, he looked for evidence addressing how often symptoms occurred, how long they lasted, and how they affected major activities.
“With no evidence as to the timing, frequency, and duration of Pasley’s depressive episodes”
In approving an FLSA settlement, he treated the parties’ investigation and discovery as evidence that the agreement was fair.
“The fact that the parties entered into the Agreement with the benefit of investigation and discovery suggests that it is fair.”
Procedural preferences
When a pleading defect appeared potentially curable, he set a specific deadline for a focused amended complaint.
“If Plaintiff intends to file an amended complaint that again raises his municipal liability claim (Count 6), he must do so on or before May 12, 2026.”
He required a collateral-review movant to connect alleged attorney error to both deficient performance and resulting prejudice.
“Young’s conclusory allegation fails to show deficient performance by Myers or any resulting prejudice.”
Cautions
A discrimination claim built only on protected status and poor treatment did not survive without facts linking the treatment to that status.
“Jones cannot assert an ADEA claim just because he is over forty and was treated poorly.”
General credibility attacks and speculation did not create a fact dispute at summary judgment without affirmative evidence supporting deliberate falsity.
“general attacks on [Bishop]’s credibility are insufficient to create a genuine issue of fact”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“The Court DISMISSES Counts 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 WITH PREJUDICE, but DISMISSES Counts 3 and 6 WITHOUT PREJUDICE.”
“the petition for a writ of habeas corpus (Doc. 1) is due to be dismissed based on a lack of jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(A).”
“the Court DENIES her habeas petition (Doc. 10).”
After screening the amended complaint, he dismissed all but two individual-capacity constitutional claims without prejudice. Quote: “all of Jones’s claims, EXCEPT his claims against Sheriff Pettway and Chaplain Hardy in their individual capacities for violations of his First and Eighth Amendment rights, are DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b).”
“The City of Birmingham’s Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 8) is GRANTED. Plaintiff Jones’s claims are DISMISSED without prejudice.”
“The Motion to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence (Doc. 1) is DENIED.”
“For the reasons explained above, the Court DENIES LEAVE to amend.”
“The Motion to Expedite (Doc. 18) is DENIED AS MOOT.”
“U.S. Bank’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 20) is GRANTED.”
“Winn-Dixie’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 30) is GRANTED.”
“Accordingly, MBUSI’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 25) is GRANTED.”
“The Court DENIES AS MOOT MBUSI’s Motion to Strike (Doc. 36).”
“The Court AFFIRMS the decision of the Commissioner.”
“The Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 31) is GRANTED.”
“The Motion to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence (Doc. 1) is DENIED.”
“The Motion Requesting Final Decision (Doc. 8) is DENIED as moot.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 368 days (N = 3).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 1.5 days (N = 10).
The reviewed early calendar included employment, insurance, products liability, civil-rights, consumer-credit, bankruptcy-appeal, habeas, prisoner, and Social Security matters. Most cases were pending and too young for stable duration estimates.
Pending matters in the official report
Reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the Civil Justice Reform Act, as of March 31, 2026.
| Motions pending more than six months | 0 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, not for Judge LaCour: median time from filing to disposition of the civil cases the court closed in the 12 months ending September 30, 2025, as reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
| Cases | Median time | |
|---|---|---|
| All civil cases closed | 1,513 | 8.7 months |
| Closed with no court action | 113 | 2.5 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 1,380 | 9.1 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 6 | not reported |
| Closed during trial | 14 | 32.8 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 1,513 | 8.7 months |
| Sep 2024 | 1,290 | 8.6 months |
| Sep 2023 | 1,387 | 9.3 months |
| Sep 2022 | 1,507 | 11.3 months |
| Sep 2021 | 1,803 | 10.8 months |
| Sep 2020 | 1,507 | 10.9 months |
| Sep 2019 | 1,732 | 10.8 months |
The table leaves out prisoner petitions, land condemnations, deportation reviews, recovery of overpayments and enforcement of judgments, and reports no median for fewer than 10 cases. A district that closed a large multidistrict litigation in the period shows very large counts and long medians for that year. Source: Table C-5, U.S. District Courts (spreadsheet).
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