Henry Lee Adams Jr.
How Judge Adams rules, drawn from 11 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Adams
Henry Lee Adams, Jr. is a judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Appointed by President William J. Clinton, Judge Adams received a commission on November 24, 1993. Judge Adams assumed senior status on April 8, 2010.
Judge Adams's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Adams, 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
Send a courtesy copy to chambers promptly when a filing exceeds 25 pages, including exhibits.
“Counsel and pro se parties must provide a courtesy copy of any document filed that exceeds 25 pages (including exhibits) to chambers as promptly as possible after the document's filing via United States mail or other reliable service.”
Motions
Include authority and pinpoint citations in every dispositive motion.
“All dispositive motions should include citation to authority, including pinpoint cites.”
Trial
For a bench trial, file a trial brief of no more than 10 pages by the deadline set after the pretrial conference.
“Trial briefs are required in bench trials. The briefs may not exceed 10 pages.”
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 10, 2026).
How Judge Adams decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
When a defendant showed that collection calls resulted from a reasonable database search and that its procedures were designed to avoid third-party disclosures, Adams accepted the statutory bona-fide-error defense on summary judgment.
“CBE’s error in calling Mr. Tucker was unintentional and occurred despite procedures reasonably adapted to avoid a FDCPA violation.”
In an Equal Access Act dispute, Adams required evidence tying the proposed student club itself to a genuine disruption; an isolated event involving one member at another school did not establish that connection.
“one incident involving one Alliance member’s behavior at a different school regarding a different event does not amount to actual evidence the current high school club itself, or recognition of its name, will cause a material disruption.”
Adams enforced an ERISA plan's mandatory forum-selection clause where the plaintiff did not show exceptional public-interest circumstances against transfer.
“The Court finds that Plaintiff has not met its burden of showing that public-interest factors overwhelmingly disfavor a transfer.”
Cautions
Broad, undeveloped requests to exclude expert testimony may be rejected as premature; identify the precise testimony, governing methodology, and reason for exclusion.
“the Court agrees with Plaintiff that this blanket argument is vague and premature.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. 18) is GRANTED; the clerk is directed to enter judgment in favor of Defendant and against Plaintiff.”
“Defendant’s Motion to Compel (Dkt. 81) and Motion for Subpoena Pursuant to F.R.Crim.P. § 17(a), (b), (c) (Dkt. 82) are DENIED.”
“Defendant’s Motion for Writ of Mandamus (Dkt. 85) and Motion to Expedite Ruling on Motion to Compel (Dkt. 89) are DENIED as moot.”
“Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction (Dkt. 2) is GRANTED;”
“Plaintiffs’ Motion to Waive Bond (Dkt. 6) is GRANTED; the Court waives the security requirement set forth in Rule 65(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.”
“Defendant’s Motion to Strike (Dkt. 16) is DENIED as moot.”
“Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt.19) is GRANTED; the clerk is directed to enter judgment in favor of Defendant and against Plaintiff.”
“The Motion to Dismiss and Quash Service of Process (Dkt.3) is DENIED:”
“Plaintiffs Request for an Evidentiary Hearing (Dkt.14) is DENIED;”
“Plaintiffs Motion for an Order Directing Clerk to Issue Summons (Dkt.16) is DENIED as moot;”
“Defendant, Pakistan Power Resources, LLC’s Motion to Dismiss First Amended Complaint Pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) (Dkt. 99) is DENIED in part and GRANTED in part. The Motion is denied as to Counts I, II, and III. The Motion is granted as to Counts VI and VII.”
“Defendants’ Motion to Terminate Revised Offer of Judgment (Doc. # 681) is GRANTED. The injunctive relief contained in the Order Entering Defendants’ Revised Offer of Judgment (Doc. # 383) is hereby TERMINATED in accordance with the Prison Litigation Reform Act.”
“Plaintiffs Motion to Conditionally Certify Collective Action (Dkt.16) is GRANTED to the extent discussed in this Order;”
“Plaintiffs Motion to File Reply (Dkt. 45) is GRANTED to the extent Plaintiff may file a reply to Defendants’ opposition to Plaintiffs Motion to Toll the Statute of Limitations or before December 8, 2017 if he cannot reach an agreement with Defendants regarding same;”
“Defendant’s Motion To Apply New Jersey Law To Plaintiffs’ Punitive Damages Demand (Dkt. 83) is GRANTED;”
“Motion to Exclude Plaintiffs’ Expert Suzanne Parisian (Dkt. 117) is DENIED without prejudice.”
“Defendant’s Unopposed Motion for Leave to File a Reply (Dkt. 15) is DENIED.”
“Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss for Improper Venue or in the Alternative to Transfer Venue (Dkt. 7) is GRANTED in part. Specifically, this case shall be transferred to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.”
“Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (Dkt. 46) is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 32 days (N = 10).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 69 days (N = 10).
The fixed-seed 2015 cohort included habeas and prisoner matters that often closed within days or weeks, alongside disability, civil-rights, ADA, and fraud cases. The longer matters included a Social Security appeal and an employment dispute; the ten-case duration median was 32 days. This bounded cohort describes the sampled matters rather than the judge's full 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 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 2 | 0 |
| Sep 2023 | 2 | 2 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2022 | 1 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 2 | 4 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 1 |
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 Middle District of Florida, not for Judge Adams: 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 | 6,896 | 5.5 months |
| Closed with no court action | 49 | 3.5 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 6,492 | 5.2 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 319 | 14.7 months |
| Closed during trial | 36 | 24.2 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 6,896 | 5.5 months |
| Sep 2024 | 7,115 | 5.6 months |
| Sep 2023 | 6,777 | 5.5 months |
| Sep 2022 | 6,781 | 6.7 months |
| Sep 2021 | 6,749 | 6.2 months |
| Sep 2020 | 6,392 | 6.2 months |
| Sep 2019 | 6,830 | 5.7 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 Adams with the record in hand
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