Gary S. Austin
How Judge Austin rules, drawn from 3 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Austin
Gary S. Austin was appointed a United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of California in October 2007 and is listed by the court as a recalled judge. He previously served as a Fresno County prosecutor and as a judge of the Fresno municipal and superior courts.
Judge Austin's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Austin, 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
Motions
Contact the courtroom deputy for available motion hearing dates.
“*Contact courtroom deputy for available dates.”
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 Austin decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
In Romo, the judge approved the parties’ stipulated sentence-four remand; this order does not resolve a contested merits question.
“As stipulated, Doc. 19, this case is remanded to the Commissioner for further”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“As stipulated, Doc. 19, this case is remanded to the Commissioner for further”
During statutory screening of a pro se prisoner's amended complaint, Austin allowed Eighth Amendment excessive-force claims against two defendants to proceed but found the remaining medical-care, equal-protection, failure-to-protect, disability, state-law, and declaratory-relief theories deficient. He granted leave to amend and required individualized allegations explaining what each defendant did.
After the plaintiff ignored two directives and an order to show cause requiring a related-case notice, Austin imposed a $50-per-day sanction jointly on the plaintiff and counsel until compliance and warned that continued noncompliance could lead to dismissal.
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 | 1 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 11 | 13 |
| Mar 2025 | 20 | 19 |
| Sep 2024 | 12 | 12 |
| Mar 2024 | 14 | 5 |
| Sep 2023 | 6 | 0 |
| Mar 2023 | 1 | 0 |
| Sep 2022 | 2 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 2 | 0 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2020 | 1 | 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 Eastern District of California, not for Judge Austin: 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 | 2,984 | 8.1 months |
| Closed with no court action | 1,029 | 5.5 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 1,899 | 9.1 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 36 | 29.9 months |
| Closed during trial | 20 | 50.5 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 2,984 | 8.1 months |
| Sep 2024 | 2,575 | 9.2 months |
| Sep 2023 | 2,528 | 10.5 months |
| Sep 2022 | 2,624 | 11.2 months |
| Sep 2021 | 2,316 | 9.9 months |
| Sep 2020 | 2,319 | 9.2 months |
| Sep 2019 | 2,562 | 10.3 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 Austin with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Austin, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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