Nathanael M. Cousins
How Judge Cousins decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
He scrutinizes removal jurisdiction on his own motion and will recommend remand of an improperly-removed case (here, a state criminal matter removed by a pro se defendant).
“found that this case was improperly removed ... orders this case remanded to the Superior Court of California for the County of Santa Clara.”
Cautions
Cousins enforces procedural deadlines strictly: repeated missed deadlines, failure to oppose motions, and disregard of his orders and the Local Rules will draw a recommendation to dismiss for failure to prosecute.
“the Court hereby ADOPTS the Report to dismiss Plaintiffs' case for failure to prosecute.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Dismissal failure to prosecute recommendation N = 1 |
counts only | |
| Remand recommendation N = 1 |
counts only | |
| Default judgment recommendation N = 1 |
counts only | |
| Screening or pleading dismissal recommendation N = 1 |
counts only | |
| Attorneys fees recommendation N = 1 |
counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the Court hereby ADOPTS the Report to dismiss Plaintiffs' case for failure to prosecute. ... The Clerk shall close the case file.”
“The Court agrees with Magistrate Judge Cousins' well-reasoned report and recommendation, which found that this case was improperly removed ... The Court consequently adopts the report and recommendation in full, and orders this case remanded to the Superior Court of California for the County of Santa Clara.”
“the Court hereby OVERRULES Plaintiff's objections, ADOPTS the Report, and GRANTS Plaintiff's Amended Application for Default Judgment.”
“The Court has reviewed Judge Nathanael Cousins' Report and Recommendation to Dismiss the Case and notes there are no objections to the Report. The Court adopts the Report in every respect. Accordingly, the case is dismissed.”
“the Court ... adopts it in every respect. Accordingly, Plaintiffs' motion for attorneys' fees is granted and Plaintiffs are entitled to $25,163.60 in attorneys' fees. Plaintiffs' request for costs is denied.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Cousins's docket caseload under assigned_judge='Nathanael M. Cousins' (late-2021/2022 filed window). As a magistrate he is the initially-assigned judge in San Jose; his docket mixes qui tam/False Claims Act, ADA access, FLSA/labor, civil rights, insurance/contract, personal injury, immigration mandamus, copyright (Strike 3), habeas, and -mc subpoena matters. Durations are filing-to-termination case durations, NOT motion-to-ruling latency.