Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
How Judge Kollar-Kotelly rules, drawn from 18 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
How Judge Kollar-Kotelly decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
A short amendment delay caused by counsel's good-faith oversight can be excused when revised response and discovery deadlines will cure the opposing party's prejudice.
“the Court shall DENY the Defendant’s [19] Motion to Strike, GRANT Ms. Brown’s [20] Motion for Leave to Amend”
At the pleading stage, fact-dependent disputes over meaningful access and reasonable accommodations are left for discovery rather than resolved against a plausibly pleaded claim.
“whether a particular type of accommodation is reasonable is commonly a contextual and fact-specific inquiry.”
Procedural preferences
When an enforceable employment arbitration agreement covers all asserted claims, she compels arbitration and stays the judicial action until arbitration is complete.
“Accordingly, this case will be stayed pending completion of arbitration.”
Interlocutory certification and reconsideration are denied when the proposed issues depend on the factual record or merely repackage arguments already decided.
“this Court DENIES Defendants’ [617] Motion for Certification for Interlocutory Appeal and [618] Motion for Reconsideration”
Cautions
Parallel federal proceedings involving the same parties and dispute may be dismissed without prejudice after an equitable assessment favors the earlier-filed forum.
“Respondent’s [4] Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED and this case is DISMISSED without prejudice.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the Court shall GRANT the Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend and DENY AS MOOT the Defendant's Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings or, in the Alternative, for Summary Judgment.”
“the Court shall GRANT the Plaintiffs' Motion and DENY the Defendant's Cross-Motion.”
“the Court shall GRANT Defendant's [14] Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment and DENY Plaintiff's [10] Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings.”
“The Court will treat the defendant's motion as conceded and will enter judgment in the defendant's favor.”
“the Court shall GRANT Defendants' [20] Motion to Strike the Amended Complaint and Dismiss the Action with Prejudice and DENY Plaintiff's [21] Motion for Leave to File an Amended Complaint Nunc Pro Tunc.”
“Pending is Defendant's Motion to Dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. For the following reasons, the motion will be granted.”
“Upon consideration of the briefing, the relevant legal authorities, and the entire record, the Court shall GRANT the Motion to Dismiss.”
“the Court shall DENY the Defendant’s [19] Motion to Strike, GRANT Ms. Brown’s [20] Motion for Leave to Amend”
“Respondent’s [4] Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED and this case is DISMISSED without prejudice.”
“the Court shall DENY Defendants' [42] motion to stay their deadline to file the administrative record.”
“Defendants’ Motions are GRANTED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- Sampled recent assignments (filed 2026, all pending) are heavy on FOIA (895, Defending Rights & Dissent v. State, FIRE v. DHS, Judicial Watch v. DHS, Williams v. DoD), ANTITRUST (410, United States v. Taiheiyo Cement Corp.; she also has the In re Domestic Airline Travel Antitrust MDL and historically United States v. Microsoft), IMMIGRATION (465, Saeed/Chuang/Cai v. Mullin), APA/agency review (899), ERISA (791, IAM National Pension Fund v. Darling Ingredients), copyright (Strike 3 Holdings), and arbitration (896).
- This is a qualitative character sample, NOT a counted nature-of-suit distribution.
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