Jinsook Ohta
How Judge Ohta rules, drawn from 24 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Ohta
Jinsook Ohta is a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. Appointed by President Joseph R. Biden, Judge Ohta received a commission on December 27, 2021.
Judge Ohta's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Ohta, 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
Filing
Submit proposed orders with all motions.
“Proposed orders must be submitted simultaneously with all motions.”
Filing
Place “[PROPOSED]” in the caption of a proposed order.
“Proposed orders should contain ‘[PROPOSED]’ in brackets in the caption.”
Motions
Meet and confer with the opposing party before filing an ex parte motion.
“Before filing any ex parte motion, counsel must contact the opposing party to meet and confer regarding the subject of the ex parte motion.”
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 Ohta decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
She grants a plaintiff's renewed motion for summary judgment on a breach-of-contract claim and denies the accompanying declaratory-relief claim as moot.
“For the reasons set forth below, the Court grants Plaintiff's Renewed Motion for Summary Judgment on her breach-of-contract claim. ... Plaintiff's declaratory relief claim is denied as moot.”
Procedural preferences
Ohta treats reconsideration as an extraordinary remedy and denies it where the required showing is not made.
“the Court concludes that the extraordinary remedy of reconsideration is not warranted here and denies the motion.”
In Morrison v. Yippee Entertainment, Ohta denied a motion to compel arbitration because the subscription screen's 'clicking below' language, paired with a 'Start subscription' button and two nearby links, did not show the plaintiff unambiguously agreed to the terms.
“the Court finds that there was no binding agreement to arbitrate because Plaintiff did not unambiguously manifest assent to the Terms of Service.”
Cautions
A prospective-client contact does not by itself require disqualification; the moving party must prove that the disclosed information was materially harmful in the litigation.
“The governing standard for disqualification is whether the information disclosed by a prospective client is ‘materially harmful’ to the client at the time of the disqualification.”
After multiple opportunities to correct disability discrimination and retaliation claims, Ohta denied further amendment because the pleading defects remained.
“finds that further leave to amend Plaintiff’s claims would be futile.”
In Elliott, Ohta dismissed an economic-loss claim with prejudice because additional facts could not cure its legal defect.
“Because alleging additional facts would not overcome this legal bar, amendment would be futile.”
In Underwood, Ohta dismissed a school-related retaliation claim after finding that the alleged removal of a parent’s name from enrollment records came before his protected complaint.
“the protected activity could not have caused the retaliation.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the Court concludes that the extraordinary remedy of reconsideration is not warranted here and denies the motion.”
“For the reasons set forth below, the Court grants Plaintiff's Renewed Motion for Summary Judgment on her breach-of-contract claim. ... Plaintiff's declaratory relief claim is denied as moot.”
“For the reasons set forth above, and after a careful consideration of the relevant facts, alleged violations, requested discovery, and legal authority, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Motion for Limited Discovery.”
“grants Defendant’s motion for summary judgment of noninfringement as to call claims and”
“denies Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment of infringement as to all claims.”
In a court-initiated in forma pauperis screening under 28 U.S.C. 1915(e)(2) and 1915A(b), the court found no viable Eighth Amendment claim and dismissed the complaint without prejudice with one final chance to amend.
“The case is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE and judgment is hereby”
“The Court GRANTS Petitioner’s motion for a temporary restraining order.”
“The Court GRANTS Petitioner’s motion for preliminary injunction”
“For these reasons, the Court denies Defendant’s motion to compel arbitration”
“The Court therefore DENIES Adaptamed’s motion for disqualification.”
“the Court GRANTS the habeas petition [Dkt. 1]”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 112 days (N = 9).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 110.5 days (N = 2).
Judge Ohta's June 2022 through December 2023 docket includes criminal matters, consumer and automotive-warranty disputes, employment and wrongful-termination cases, Section 1983 civil-rights actions, disability-access claims, and contract disputes.
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 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 2 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 4 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 7 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 14 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 20 |
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 Ohta: 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).
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Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Ohta, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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