Florence Y. Pan
How Judge Pan rules, drawn from 21 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Pan left this court for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Pan
Florence Y. Pan was a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Appointed by President Joseph R. Biden, Judge Pan received a commission on September 23, 2021. Judge Pan left the court on September 28, 2022 on appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
How Judge Pan decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Castro, allegations about hiring, firing, pay, schedules, time sheets, and daily supervision were concrete enough to sustain a joint-employer theory before discovery.
“Plaintiffs have alleged facts that would support a finding of a joint-employer relationship.”
In Donato, Pan required evidence connecting alleged government misconduct to the requested records before allowing a public-interest claim to overcome third-party privacy interests.
“the requester must produce evidence that would warrant a belief by a reasonable person that the alleged [g]overnment impropriety might have occurred.”
Procedural preferences
In Judicial Watch, Pan declined discovery where existing declarations let the court assess the requested footage and the additional facts were unnecessary to oppose summary judgment.
“‘essential’ to justify its opposition to the pending Motion for Summary Judgment.”
In AFGE, Pan struck a late merits motion and imposed fees after finding that counsel tried to obtain a summary-judgment result through a different procedural vehicle.
“Where the door of summary judgment is closed, Rule 12(c) does not open a window to obtain the same merits outcome.”
Cautions
In Best, Pan rejected discrimination and retaliation theories that asserted causation without facts connecting the challenged assignment to race, age, or protected activity.
“Best offers only conclusory statements to establish the necessary element of causation”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court will grant Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss.”
“For the foregoing reasons, limited discovery is not necessary for the parties to litigate the pending Motion for Summary Judgment, and the Court denies Plaintiff’s Motion for Discovery.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court will deny Defendant PHR’s Motion to Dismiss Count I of the Amended Complaint.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court will grant Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss.”
“Because Donato has not established the type of error that is cognizable under Rule 54(b), or that justice requires reconsideration of the Court’s ruling, the Court will deny his Motion for Reconsideration.”
“the Court will grant Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss as to Counts II, III, IV, and V; will deny Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss as to Count I but will dismiss Plaintiff’s claim for punitive damages under Count I”
“and will deny Plaintiff’s Motion to Expedite.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants in part and denies in part Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File Second Amended Complaint.”
“the Court will grant Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss as to the APA claim and will set a hearing on the remaining Due Process claim.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court will grant Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss.”
“the Court will grant Defendants’ motion for summary judgment and will deny Bolze’s cross-motion for summary judgment.”
“The Court further concludes that Bolze is not entitled to reimbursement of his fees and costs and therefore will deny his motion for reimbursement.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court will grant Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss as to all counts.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court will deny Plaintiffs’ Motion for Reconsideration.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 147 days (N = 5).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 6 days (N = 9).
The fifteen earliest located assignments after Pan's commission included prisoner petitions, immigration and visa matters, administrative review, antitrust, environmental litigation, public-records disputes, and miscellaneous subpoena or financial-privacy proceedings. This is a bounded qualitative sample, not a courtwide distribution.
Pending matters in the official report
Judge Pan was last listed in the Civil Justice Reform Act report as of September 30, 2022.
| Motions pending more than six months | 21 |
| 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 | 7 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2022 | 21 | 7 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 6 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 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.
A historical record
Judge Pan left this court for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled here. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.