Laurel Beeler
How Judge Beeler rules, drawn from 28 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Beeler
Laurel Beeler has served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California since January 2010. Before joining the bench, she worked in the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, including as an Assistant United States Attorney and Deputy Chief of its Criminal Division.
Judge Beeler's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Beeler, 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.
Key rules
Discovery
Lead trial counsel must confer in person or by video after an initial discovery conference fails; then parties may submit a five-page letter.
“If parties have a discovery dispute, then counsel must confer by any means to resolve or narrow 17 their dispute. If that process does not resolve the dispute, then lead trial counsel must confer in 18 person if possible or at least by videoconference. Either party may demand a conference with one 19 week’s notice. The parties then may raise their dispute in a five-page letter”
Conferences
A party seeking to appear by video at a hearing must stipulate at least one week before the hearing.
“Hearings are in person. Parties may stipulate to a hearing by 21 videoconference one week before any hearing.”
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).
How Judge Beeler decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Aavid Thermalloy v. Cooler Master, Beeler recommended granting an unopposed motion to amend infringement contentions without a separate good-cause analysis.
“Where, as here, a defendant does not oppose a motion to amend ICs, ‘the Court need not determine whether [plaintiff] has shown good cause for amending its infringement contentions’ and may summarily grant the motion to amend.”
In a police-shooting case, she denied summary judgment on excessive-force, battery, and Bane Act claims where disputes remained about whether the plaintiff was complying with commands and whether the officer's use of force was reasonable; the same disputes prevented qualified immunity at the summary-judgment stage.
“Fact disputes preclude granting summary judgment on the Bane Act claim.”
In the Concurrent Ventures patent discovery dispute, she accepted a 25,000-document cap after the defendants quantified the review burden with hit counts and a time-and-cost estimate.
“The court finds that the defendants’ 25,000-document cap is reasonable in light of the demonstrated burden that the plaintiffs’ email requests would impose.”
Procedural preferences
In Kabas Krasnici v. UBS AG, Beeler recommended dismissal without prejudice for lack of personal jurisdiction and venue, finding another amendment futile on those threshold defects.
“The case should be dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction and venue, without prejudice to filing it in another forum. ... These issues would normally allow a final opportunity to amend, but would be futile due to the issues with venue and jurisdiction.”
In a dispute over 811 requests for admission, Beeler rejected a blanket 100-request cap but required document-authenticity stipulations and request-specific revisions.
“Rule 36 has no numerical limit, the defendants concede that the requests are not categorically improper”
In the First-Citizens case, she denied a motion to strike a counterclaim where the existing schedule accommodated it and the movant identified no bad faith or futility.
“First-Citizens does not argue bad faith or futility. To the extent that leave is required, the court modifies the schedule and deems the counterclaim properly filed.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“On May 23, 2025, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler issued a report and recommendation that the Court grant Plaintiff Pasha Hawaii Holdings LLC's motion for default judgment and enter judgment for Plaintiff in the amount of $74,288.20. ... No party has filed an objection, so the Court adopts Judge Beeler's report and recommendation and grants Pasha Hawaii Holdings' motion for default judgment.”
“the Report and Recommendation (‘Report’) prepared by Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler, in which she recommends that the Court grant Plaintiffs' motion to enforce the settlement agreement. ... The Court finds the Report thorough and well reasoned and adopts it in every respect. Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' motion to enforce the settlement agreement.”
“The Court has reviewed Judge Laurel Beeler's Report and Recommendation Re: Screening Order and notes there are no objections to the Report. The Court adopts the Report in every respect. Accordingly, this case is dismissed with prejudice.”
“The case should be dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction and venue, without prejudice to filing it in another forum. ... The court directs the Clerk of Court to reassign the case to a district judge and recommends that the newly assigned district judge dismiss the case.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the undersigned recommends that the court grant Aavid's unopposed motion to amend its ICs.”
“The motion is granted. Among other grounds, the state claim against Ms. Ferrer is unrelated to the other claims, there is no supplemental jurisdiction, and the Government Claims Act bars the suit. The claim is dismissed without prejudice to reasserting it in state court, if the Claims Act bar can be overcome.”
“The court lacks supplemental jurisdiction over the Bane Act claim and otherwise denies the motion.”
“The court grants the TRO, postponing the effective date of EOIR’s recission until the court decides the motion for a preliminary injunction.”
“The case is remanded to the San Francisco Superior Court.”
“The defendants are entitled to summary judgment on the plaintiff’s negligence claims.”
“CelLink’s motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration is denied.”
“The court denies the defendants’ request that the plaintiff withdraw his requests for admission and reissue no more than 100.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The sample covers cases filed in 2022 and a separate group of pending 2026 matters. As an initially assigned San Francisco magistrate judge, Beeler handles employment and labor, employee-benefit collections, immigration, consumer, copyright, patent, civil-rights, foreign-sovereign, and criminal-magistrate matters. The durations measure filing to termination, not motion-to-ruling time.
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 | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 11 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 11 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 8 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 9 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 10 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 10 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 11 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 8 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 10 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 7 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 7 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 6 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 5 |
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 Northern District of California, not for Judge Beeler: 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 | 6,017 | 7.7 months |
| Closed with no court action | 2,955 | 5.5 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 1,978 | 7.6 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 1,052 | 15 months |
| Closed during trial | 32 | 36.9 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 6,017 | 7.7 months |
| Sep 2024 | 9,248 | 20.6 months |
| Sep 2023 | 5,452 | 7 months |
| Sep 2022 | 9,464 | 11.4 months |
| Sep 2021 | 6,437 | 6.3 months |
| Sep 2020 | 6,881 | 11.4 months |
| Sep 2019 | 5,640 | 8.7 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 Beeler with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Beeler, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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