Lawrence R. Sommerfeld
How Judge Sommerfeld rules, drawn from 5 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Sommerfeld
Lawrence R. Sommerfeld is a United States magistrate judge for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta. He joined the court in September 2025 after leading the appeals and legal advice section of the district’s United States Attorney’s Office.
Judge Sommerfeld's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Sommerfeld'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 Sommerfeld decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Jackson-Felder v. Acima Credit, Sommerfeld recommended compelling arbitration, staying the litigation, and denying the plaintiff's remand requests. The district judge adopted the recommendation.
“Acima's motion to compel arbitration and stay litigation [ECF 3] is GRANTED.”
Procedural preferences
The district judge overruled objections to Sommerfeld’s report and recommendation and denied a partial motion to dismiss.
“MARTA's objections to the R&R [ECF 58] are OVERRULED, and undersigned ADOPTS the R&R [ECF 54] as the Order of this Court. MARTA's partial motion to dismiss the second amended complaint [ECF 47] is DENIED.”
Cautions
Applied controlling circuit precedent to recommend denial of a Second Amendment challenge to a felon-in-possession indictment; the district judge adopted the recommendation over objection.
“The undersigned further RECOMMENDS that Bailey’s Motion to Dismiss Indictment [Doc. 22] be DENIED based on controlling authority.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“MARTA's objections to the R&R [ECF 58] are OVERRULED, and undersigned ADOPTS the R&R [ECF 54] as the Order of this Court. MARTA's partial motion to dismiss the second amended complaint [ECF 47] is DENIED.”
“Acima's motion to compel arbitration and stay litigation [ECF 3] is GRANTED.”
“Jackson-Felder's motions to remand [ECFs 5, 7] are DENIED.”
“The undersigned RECOMMENDS that Bailey’s Motion to Suppress [Doc. 21] be DENIED”
“The undersigned further RECOMMENDS that Bailey’s Motion to Dismiss Indictment [Doc. 22] be DENIED based on controlling authority.”
“it is RECOMMENDED that the instant motion to vacate (Doc. 216) be DENIED as untimely”
“The Court RECOMMENDS that Cohen’s motion to dismiss be GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART. [Doc. 11.]”
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 |
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 Sommerfeld: 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).
Draft for Judge Sommerfeld with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Sommerfeld, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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