J. Elizabeth McBath
How Judge McBath rules, drawn from 20 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge McBath
J. Elizabeth McBath is a United States magistrate judge for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta. She joined the court in April 2022 after serving as an assistant United States attorney in the district.
Judge McBath's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge McBath's own (checked October 9, 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 9, 2026).
How Judge McBath decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
In Terry, McBath recommended rejecting a request for leave to amend made only in a brief opposing dismissal because it was not properly raised; the district judge adopted the report.
“Accordingly, Plaintiff’s request for leave to amend the complaint, which is not properly raised, should be DENIED.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the Report and Recommendation, it is received with approval and adopted as the Opinion and Order of this Court. Accordingly, Defendant's Motion to Suppress [Doc. 22] is hereby DENIED.”
“the Court ADOPTS the R&R [Doc. 147] as the Opinion and Order of this Court. It is hereby ORDERED that Defendant's Motion to Suppress Statement [Doc. 120] is DENIED.”
“To the extent that Movant's objections pertain to the Magistrate Judge's recommendation to dismiss as untimely the Section 2255 motion, the objections are OVERRULED. ... a Certificate of Appealability is DENIED”
“To the extent that Movant's objections pertain to the Magistrate Judge's recommendation to deny the Section 1326(d) motion, the objections are OVERRULED.”
“Petitioner's objections [ECF 22] are OVERRULED, the R&R [ECF 20] is ADOPTED as the Order of this Court, and the instant 28 U.S.C. Section 2254 petition for a writ of habeas corpus is DENIED. ... a Certificate of Appealability is DENIED”
“the Court ADOPTS the R&R [Doc. 41] as the opinion of this Court. For the reasons stated in the R&R, the Court DENIES Defendant's motion to suppress evidence [Doc. 22]”
“and DENIES Defendant's motion to suppress statements. [Doc. 23].”
“Desty's objections are OVERRULED, undersigned ADOPTS the R&R in full as the Order of this Court, and this case is DISMISSED with prejudice.”
“Robertson's objections to the R&R are OVERRULED and the R&R is ADOPTED in its entirety. Robertson's motion to dismiss the indictment [ECF 28] and petition for disclosure of grand jury matters [ECF 29] are DENIED.”
“The Defendant's Objections to the Report and Recommendation are overruled. The Court approves and adopts the Report and Recommendation as the judgment of the Court. The Defendant's Motion to Suppress [Doc. 40] is DENIED.”
“The Court ADOPTS the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation as the order of this Court. Accordingly, Movant's 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion (Doc. 209) is DENIED and a certificate of appealability is DENIED”
“The Court adopts the R&R [75] as its order. Crumbley's motion [10] to return property, motion [28] to suppress evidence, motion [29] to dismiss indictment, motion [31] to suppress statements, motion [42] to suppress cellular phone extraction and amended motion [45] to suppress evidence are denied.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court OVERRULES Mr. Takyi's objections (Doc. 31) and ADOPTS the R&R (Doc. 29) in its entirety as the Order of this Court. Mr. Takyi's Motion to Suppress (Doc. 20) is DENIED.”
“Accordingly, the Court ADOPTS the R&R [Doc. 44] as the Opinion and Order of the Court. It Is hereby ORDERED that Defendant's Motion to Suppress the Search of 300 Anchorage Pl., Roswell, Georgia 30076 [Doc. 31] is DENIED.”
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 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2022 | 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 Northern District of Georgia, not for Judge McBath: 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 | 6,703 | 4 months |
| Closed with no court action | 640 | 3 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 4,138 | 1.6 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 1,901 | 11.6 months |
| Closed during trial | 24 | 31.4 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 6,703 | 4 months |
| Sep 2024 | 6,190 | 5.3 months |
| Sep 2023 | 8,614 | 13.7 months |
| Sep 2022 | 5,403 | 5.1 months |
| Sep 2021 | 4,908 | 6 months |
| Sep 2020 | 4,463 | 5.7 months |
| Sep 2019 | 4,954 | 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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