Terry Lee Shell
Judge Shell no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Shell decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
He upheld a usury finding because interest first became chargeable only after the contract’s free period expired.
“There was no interest properly chargeable to the bankrupt until the expiration of the ‘free period’.”
He approved prosecutorial dismissal when the reasons were substantial, factually supported, and compatible with the public interest.
“dismissal is warranted if the Court is satisfied that the reasons advanced for dismissal are substantial, supported by a factual basis and are compatible with the public interest.”
Procedural preferences
He treated police officers as fully protected public employees when their speech and association rights were implicated.
“policemen like teachers and lawyers are not relegated to a watered-down version of constitutional rights.”
Cautions
Even with a valid warrant and probable cause, he required officers to give occupants a reasonable opportunity to surrender privacy voluntarily before entry.
“every person must be given a reasonable opportunity to surrender his or her privacy voluntarily.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“IT IS THEREFORE CONSIDERED ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the order of the Bankruptcy Judge herein dated December 3, 1974 be, and the same is, hereby affirmed, and this cause is remanded to the bankruptcy court for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.”
“Therefore, this Court will not disturb the considered judgment of the Attorney General. The motion on behalf of the United States to dismiss those indictments will be granted.”
“Therefore, the sawed-off shotgun which was seized by the officers must be suppressed.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The four published decisions concern bankruptcy, police employment rights, criminal charging discretion, and search-and-seizure procedure. This corpus is too small to support a caseload estimate.
A historical record
Judge Shell no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.