Levin Hicks Campbell
How Judge Campbell rules, drawn from 38 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Campbell no longer sits on this court. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Campbell
Levin Hicks Campbell joined the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in 1972 following appointment by President Richard M. Nixon. He previously served as a United States District Judge for the District of Massachusetts. He assumed senior status in January 1992 and now holds inactive senior status.
How Judge Campbell decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
He enforces commercial filing rules as written when third parties rely on the public record. The hardship caused by filing in the wrong place does not justify an equitable exception that would make statutory perfection requirements unreliable.
“Efforts by courts to fashion equitable solutions to mitigate the hardship on particular creditors of literal application of statutory filing requirements would have the deleterious effect of undermining the reliance which can be placed upon them.”
FLSA exemption analysis turns on employees' actual work rather than their managerial titles. For willfulness, evidence that the employer knew or had reason to know the Act applied supports use of the longer limitations period.
“The test for willfulness is whether the employer knew or had reason to know that the FLSA was applicable to its employment practices.”
Procedural preferences
In reviewing a bankruptcy sale, he balances confidence in the regularity of judicial auctions against the estate's interest in avoiding a grossly inadequate price. Reopening bidding is reserved for genuinely close cases, not merely a chance to collect a few extra dollars.
“The bankruptcy court must be accorded sufficient discretion to decide the truly close cases as best it can in view of these competing considerations.”
Cautions
A service-of-process defense must be raised in the first responsive Rule 12 filing. Filing an answer and other motions without asserting it waives the defense and submits the defendant to personal jurisdiction.
“The Rules provide that the defense of insufficiency of service of process is waived if omitted from a motion to dismiss, and may not be raised thereafter.”
In United States v. Hoyos-Medina, Campbell affirmed the conviction because the ineffective-assistance claim had not been presented to the trial court, leaving the defendant free to raise it in a Section 2255 proceeding.
“Since the claim cannot be considered now on direct appeal and since there is no other assignment of error, we affirm defendant’s conviction without prejudice to any right he may have to raise the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel in a proceeding brought pursuant to section 2255.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Dismissal of the complaint for lack of jurisdiction over Leasing was improper, and the complaint against it must be reinstated.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Circuit judges review appeals rather than manage a federal trial docket, so trial-court caseload and motion-timing metrics do not apply.
A historical record
Judge Campbell no longer sits on this court. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled here. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.