Fred W. Slaughter
How Judge Slaughter rules, drawn from 17 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Slaughter
Fred Wallace Slaughter is a judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Appointed by President Joseph R. Biden, Judge Slaughter received a commission on April 19, 2022.
Judge Slaughter's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Slaughter, as published on the court's website (checked October 8, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
- Judge's Procedures and Schedules ↗
- Civil Order re Pretrial and Trial Procedures Order UPDATED 05-04-2022 ↗
- Civil Standing Order UPDATED 07-10-2026.pdf ↗
- Guide to Electronically Filing Under Seal Documents in Civil Cases ↗
- Order Setting Scheduling Conference with Worksheet UPDATED 09-24-2024 ↗
- Procedures for Filing Under Seal Documents in Criminal Cases UPDATED MAR 2023 ↗
Key rules
Contacting chambers
Counsel shall not contact court personnel to inquire about the status of a motion, stipulation, or proposed order.
“Counsel shall not contact court personnel to inquire about the status of a motion, stipulation, or proposed order.”
Filing
Deliver required chambers copies to the Santa Ana courthouse’s tenth-floor box or send them by overnight mail.
“Mandatory chambers copies of the following e-filed documents shall be delivered to the mandatory chambers copy box on the 10th Floor of the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Santa Ana or sent via overnight mail:”
Motions
Civil motions are heard Thursdays at 10 a.m.; the courtroom deputy does not reserve hearing dates.
“Civil Motions are heard on Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. (If Thursday is a holiday, the next motion date is the following Thursday.) Counsel shall not contact the Courtroom Deputy to clear or reserve a civil motion hearing date.”
Conferences
Any request for a telephonic appearance must be filed no later than five (5) court days before the court proceeding.
“Any request for a telephonic appearance must be filed no later than five (5) court days before the court proceeding.”
Conferences
File the joint Rule 26(f) report at least 14 days before the scheduling conference unless the court orders otherwise.
“Unless otherwise ordered, no later than fourteen (14) days before the Scheduling Conference, counsel shall file a Joint Rule 26(f) Report.”
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 8, 2026).
- General Order 11-10: Alternative Dispute Resolution Program ↗
- General Order 19-01: Criminal Duty Matters Electronic Filing Pilot Project ↗
- General Order 20-13: Criminal Duty Matters Electronic Filing Pilot Project ↗
- General Order 18-02: Submission of Certain Prisoner Filings Through Electronic Mail ↗
- General Order 24-07: Criminal Justice Act Plan ↗
How Judge Slaughter decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In a bankruptcy-related removal, he allowed equitable remand when California claims predominated, the parties had agreed to an Orange County forum, and remand avoided piecemeal litigation.
“Here, the court finds sufficient equities weigh in favor of remanding this action.”
In a removed data-breach suit, he treated the plaintiff’s binding cap below the diversity amount as defeating federal jurisdiction, while declining removal costs because the defense position was objectively reasonable.
“Because Morris chose to file her Complaint in state court with a binding cap on damages below the”
Procedural preferences
In Ariani, Slaughter partly granted a motion to dismiss a multi-plaintiff visa-delay suit, treated different claims differently on prejudice and amendment, and severed the out-of-district plaintiffs’ claims.
“ORDER GRANTING in Part and DENYING in Part Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, 16, and DENING Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction 45 by Judge Fred W. Slaughter. The Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART ... (1) The court DISMISSES Counts One and Two WITH PREJUDICE. (2) The court DISMISSES Counts Three, Four, Five, and Six as to Plaintiff Ariani and Plaintiff Mikaniki WITHOUT LEAVE TO AMEND but WITHOUT PREJUDICE should later circumstances demonstrate unreasonable delay. (3) The court SEVERS the claims of all plaintiffs residing outside of the Central District of California.”
In a visa-delay suit, the judge denied preliminary relief after finding the complaint did not plausibly allege unreasonable delay and the plaintiffs supplied no additional showing of likely success.
“Plaintiffs did not provide any additional evidence or argument in the Motion for 9 Preliminary Injunction suggesting a likelihood of success on the unreasonable delay 10 element.”
In a removed wage-and-hour case, the judge accepted amount-in-controversy assumptions tied to the complaint when the plaintiff did not plead limits on the alleged violation rates.
“In summary, the court finds Defendant’s assumptions regarding the violation rates reasonable because of the Complaint’s allegations and Plaintiff’s failure to sufficiently allege limiting language that would render Defendant’s assumptions unreasonable.”
In an employment removal dispute, the court remanded after finding the defendants had not met their heavy burden to show fraudulent joinder of a nondiverse defendant; it left the dismissal motion unresolved on the merits.
“Defendants fail to meet their heavy burden of demonstrating fraudulent joinder.”
In a proposed wage and hour class action, the court accepted payroll evidence and violation-rate assumptions tied to the complaint when testing the amount in controversy.
“The Complaint’s language, which chiefly identifies only that violations of the law have occurred without indicating a reasonably specific frequency, is not so limiting as to make Defendant’s assumptions unreasonable.”
In an immigration detention habeas case, the judge adopted a magistrate judge’s unopposed report, ordered a bond hearing within seven days or release, and denied the petitioner’s request for immediate release without prejudice.
“Petitioner’s request for immediate release is DENIED without”
In Carrafield, Slaughter dismissed the action without prejudice after the plaintiff failed to file an amended complaint required by an earlier order; he found four of five dismissal factors favored that result.
“In sum, four of the five factors weigh in favor of dismissal.”
Cautions
In Singh, Slaughter denied an immigration habeas petition and dismissed the action without prejudice.
“JUDGMENT by Judge Fred W. Slaughter. IT IS HEREBY ADJUDGED that the Petition is denied and this action is dismissed without prejudice 19. (MD JS-6, Case Terminated).”
In a successive removal after an earlier remand, the court found the repeated civil rights removal theory did not supply a new ground for federal jurisdiction and remanded after an order to show cause.
“This is not ‘a new and different ground for removal’”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“ORDER GRANTING in Part and DENYING in Part Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, 16, and DENING Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction 45 by Judge Fred W. Slaughter. The Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART ... (1) The court DISMISSES Counts One and Two WITH PREJUDICE. (2) The court DISMISSES Counts Three, Four, Five, and Six as to Plaintiff Ariani and Plaintiff Mikaniki WITHOUT LEAVE TO AMEND but WITHOUT PREJUDICE should later circumstances demonstrate unreasonable delay. (3) The court SEVERS the claims of all plaintiffs residing outside of the Central District of California.”
“ORDER GRANTING in Part and DENYING in Part Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, 16, and DENING Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction 45 by Judge Fred W. Slaughter. ... the Motion for Preliminary Injunction is DENIED.”
“JUDGMENT by Judge Fred W. Slaughter. IT IS HEREBY ADJUDGED that the Petition is denied and this action is dismissed without prejudice 19. (MD JS-6, Case Terminated).”
“the Motion to Remand is DENIED, and the Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings is GRANTED. Plaintiffs’ Complaint is DISMISSED WITH LEAVE TO AMEND”
“the Motion to Dismiss, (Dkt. 21), is 7 GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART”
“Motion for Preliminary 8 Injunction, (Dkt. 34), is DENIED”
“DENIES AS MOOT Defendants’ Ex Parte 16 Application, (Dkt. 50)”
“the court GRANTS the Motion to Remand and REMANDS this action to Riverside County Superior Court as case number PRMC2000914”
“For the reasons stated above, the court DENIES the Motion.”
“the court granted in part and denied in part Plaintiff 3 Ameris Bank, doing business as Balboa Capital Corporation’s (‘Plaintiff’), Motion 4 for Default Judgment against Defendant Roundel Inc. and Defendant Dejan”
“Motion to Remand is therefore GRANTED.”
“The Motion to Dismiss is DENIED AS MOOT.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Motion is DENIED.”
“For these reasons, the Motion to Remand is GRANTED.”
“the Motion to Remand is GRANTED and the Motion to Transfer is DENIED AS MOOT.”
“the court GRANTS the Motion as to remand and DENIES the Motion as to costs.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- Mixed Santa Ana (Southern Division), Los Angeles, and Riverside docket: immigration mandamus and visa-delay suits, immigration-detention and general habeas, disability-access (ADA Title III) civil-rights, labor/PAGA (often settled or compelled to arbitration), insurance, qui tam, and a substantial federal criminal calendar.
- Many civil cases resolve by settlement, arbitration, or voluntary dismissal without a written merits ruling.
- Durations below are filed-to-terminated for terminated cases in the sample.
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 | 1 |
| 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 | 4 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 1 | 4 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 4 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 5 |
| Sep 2024 | 1 | 5 |
| Mar 2024 | 7 | 5 |
| Sep 2023 | 2 | 8 |
| Mar 2023 | 1 | 9 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 7 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 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 Central District of California, not for Judge Slaughter: 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 | 15,190 | 3.9 months |
| Closed with no court action | 4,414 | 3.1 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 10,538 | 4.3 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 103 | 17.9 months |
| Closed during trial | 135 | 25.7 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 15,190 | 3.9 months |
| Sep 2024 | 15,348 | 3.9 months |
| Sep 2023 | 13,583 | 4.4 months |
| Sep 2022 | 12,887 | 4.7 months |
| Sep 2021 | 14,213 | 4.7 months |
| Sep 2020 | 14,205 | 5 months |
| Sep 2019 | 13,478 | 4.9 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).
Draft for Judge Slaughter with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Slaughter, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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