Guillermo Cabrera
How Judge Cabrera rules, drawn from 5 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Cabrera
Guillermo Cabrera serves as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of California. The court lists him among its current judges and identifies him in its directory for proposed orders.
Judge Cabrera's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Cabrera, 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
Obtain a pre-motion conference or leave of court before filing a discovery motion.
“No discovery motion may be filed until the Court has conducted its pre-motion conference unless the movant has obtained leave of Court.”
Discovery
Start the discovery dispute procedure within 30 days after the event giving rise to the dispute.
“The parties must initiate the procedure described in section C above within 30 days of the event giving rise to the dispute.”
Sealing
File a public version of any document that a party moves to seal.
“The party moving to seal must also file a ‘public’ version of the document(s) it seeks to file under seal.”
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 514-E: Policy on Privacy and Public Access to Electronic Case Files ↗
- General Order 596: Pro Bono Plan ↗
- Chief Judge Order 144: Standard Procedures for Immigration Habeas Petitions ↗
- Chief Judge Order 134-A: Appointment of Counsel for Certain Immigration Detainees Seeking Habeas Relief ↗
How Judge Cabrera decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Cautions
In Batta Fulkerson, he awarded attorney fees caused by unanswered interrogatories but denied deposition costs because the record did not connect those depositions to the discovery failure.
“the Court is not convinced that these deposition costs were incurred because of Defendant’s failure to respond to the Revised Interrogatories.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Government oral motion to unseal the case is granted.”
“GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.”
“Based on the foregoing, the Court GRANTS IN PART Plaintiff’s Motion as”
“Accordingly, the Motion is GRANTED. The Clerk of Court is directed to file under seal the documents lodged at ECF No. 124.”
After show cause proceedings, the court imposed monetary sanctions on two lawyers and recommended that the district judge give an adverse inference instruction and revoke one lawyer's admission in this case. The earlier party motion discussed in the order was resolved on July 20.
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Only one of the six matters carried a case-level termination date; it lasted 22 days and did not contain a classified Cabrera outcome.
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 | 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 Southern District of California, not for Judge Cabrera: 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 | 2,204 | 5.3 months |
| Closed with no court action | 642 | 3.3 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 1,066 | 5.3 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 484 | 10.4 months |
| Closed during trial | 12 | 38.3 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 2,204 | 5.3 months |
| Sep 2024 | 2,146 | 6.6 months |
| Sep 2023 | 2,133 | 6 months |
| Sep 2022 | 1,974 | 9 months |
| Sep 2021 | 2,381 | 7.4 months |
| Sep 2020 | 1,885 | 6 months |
| Sep 2019 | 2,265 | 6.2 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 Cabrera with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Cabrera, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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