G. Michael Harvey
How Judge Harvey rules, drawn from 34 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Harvey
G. Michael Harvey was appointed a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Columbia in February 2015. He earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and previously worked in the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Judge Harvey's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Harvey's own (checked October 8, 2026), so the court's local rules and general orders are the place to look (court page ↗).
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).
How Judge Harvey decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Cautions
In Wilson v. Noem, he treated the government’s knowledge argument as forfeited because it first appeared in its summary judgment reply; a retaliation claim survived.
“Defendant has forfeited any argument that it is entitled to judgment”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Plaintiffs’ motion to compel and for sanctions [Dkt. 44] will be GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART”
“Plaintiffs’ motion for an amended scheduling order [Dkt. 43] will be GRANTED.”
“Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment [Dkt. 12] will be GRANTED IN PART”
“DCPS’ Motion for Summary Judgment [Dkt. 13] will be DENIED.”
“Mark Brown’s petition for attorney’s fees [Dkt. 3699] will be GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.”
“ORDERED that Plaintiffs’ request to engage in limited discovery during the pendency of Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss is DENIED.”
“For these reasons, Plaintiff’s Motion to Strike [Dkt. 20] is DENIED.”
“ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Motion for Permission to File Pleadings [Dkt. 148], Motion for Leave to File Motion to Expedite Proceedings [Dkt. 150], and Motion for Leave to File Status Document [Dkt. 151] are DENIED.”
“ORDERED that Plaintiffs’ Motion for Conditional Certification and Court-Authorized Notice Pursuant to Section 216(b) of the FLSA and the DCMWA (ECF No. 36) is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART as discussed above.”
“ORDERED that Clamant Lazarenko’s motion is DENIED as untimely.”
Held that a pro se claimant's failure to exhaust administrative remedies is not jurisdictional because he had presented his benefits claim to the agency, so a Rule 12(b)(1) motion was the wrong vehicle; rather than rejecting the motion outright, the court construed it under Rule 12(b)(6) and converted it to a summary judgment motion with further briefing. No motion was resolved on the merits.
“Plaintiff’s motion is granted in part and denied in part.”
“Plaintiff’s motion is granted in part and denied in part.”
“ORDERED that Defendants RoofTopDC, LLC, Noe Landini, and Franco Landini’s mo- tion for attorney’s fees and sanctions (ECF No. 80) is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- The sampled matters are concentrated in wage-and-hour suits where he sits as the referred discovery judge and in disability-benefit appeals decided on the parties' consent, with some contract, tort, and insurance work.
- His more recent docket is largely sealed warrant and criminal complaint duty, which produces no civil motion practice.
- This bounded sample describes the reviewed records only and is not a census of his caseload.
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 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 2 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2020 | 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.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of United States District Court for the District of Columbia, not for Judge Harvey: 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 | 3,347 | 7.7 months |
| Closed with no court action | 876 | 5.4 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 2,449 | 8.8 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 13 | 53.2 months |
| Closed during trial | 9 | not reported |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 3,347 | 7.7 months |
| Sep 2024 | 3,290 | 6.2 months |
| Sep 2023 | 3,288 | 4.7 months |
| Sep 2022 | 3,044 | 5.6 months |
| Sep 2021 | 3,408 | 4.8 months |
| Sep 2020 | 2,947 | 5.8 months |
| Sep 2019 | 2,963 | 5.1 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 Harvey with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Harvey, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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