S. James Otero
Judge Otero no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Otero decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Grants summary adjudication of patent noninfringement in its entirety where the accused product does not meet the asserted claims.
“For the following reasons, Defendants’ Motion for Summary Adjudication is GRANTED in its entirety.”
Procedural preferences
Grants defense summary judgment in negligence and personal-injury suits on the papers where the plaintiff cannot establish a triable issue.
“For the following reasons, Grand Circle's Motion is GRANTED.”
Cautions
Denies class certification where the named plaintiff fails the Rule 23(a)(3) typicality requirement; frequently decides motions on the papers without oral argument under Rule 78(b).
“Because Wiener does not satisfy the typicality re*663quirement of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a)(3), Plaintiffs Motion is DENIED.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Because Wiener does not satisfy the typicality re*663quirement of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a)(3), Plaintiffs Motion is DENIED.”
“For the following reasons, Plaintiffs Motion is GRANTED.”
“For the following reasons, Grand Circle's Motion is GRANTED.”
“For the following reasons, Defendants’ Motion for Summary Adjudication is GRANTED in its entirety.”
“For the following reasons, Defen *1210 dants’ Motions for Summary Judgment are GRANTED.”
“For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS IN *1084PART AND DENIES IN PART the Government’s Motion to Dismiss.”
“For the reasons stated below, the Court GRANTS IN PART AND DENIES IN PART the Motion.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Drawn from a sample of his case assignments. His docket (a visible window of 2016-2019, all terminated by his 2020 retirement) mixed a multi-year False Claims Act qui tam (United States v. Federal Defense Industries), the high-profile Clifford v. Trump (Stormy Daniels) defamation and contract suits, federal criminal cases, serial-filer ADA Title III suits (Rutherford), pro se prisoner, civil-rights, and habeas matters, and commercial contract disputes. Durations below are filed-minus-terminated for terminated dockets in the sample. Case-level nature-of-suit codes were blank on these records; the mix is inferred from the case captions and numbers.
A historical record
Judge Otero 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.