Lawrence R. Sommerfeld

How Judge Sommerfeld rules, drawn from 4 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

Court
United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
Position
magistrate
Commissioned
2025-09-29
Signed orders read
4

How Judge Sommerfeld decides

Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

What persuades

Enforces arbitration clauses, granting a motion to compel arbitration and staying the litigation while denying the plaintiff's motions to remand.

“Acima's motion to compel arbitration and stay litigation [ECF 3] is GRANTED.”

Procedural preferences

Overrules objections and adopts the report and recommendation as the order of the court, denying 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.

Victoria Huddleston v. Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
1:23-cv-04552-SDG-LRS · 2026-03-30
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Denied

“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.”

Devon Jackson-Felder v. Acima Credit, LLC
1:25-cv-03491-SDG-LRS · 2026-03-31
Motion to compel arbitration (defendant) Granted

“Acima's motion to compel arbitration and stay litigation [ECF 3] is GRANTED.”

Motions to remand (plaintiff) Denied

“Jackson-Felder's motions to remand [ECFs 5, 7] are DENIED.”

United States v. Lee Bailey
1:24-cr-00398-JPB-LRS · 2026-06-03
Motion to suppress (defendant) Denied

“The undersigned RECOMMENDS that Bailey’s Motion to Suppress [Doc. 21] be DENIED”

Motion to dismiss indictment (defendant) Denied

“The undersigned further RECOMMENDS that Bailey’s Motion to Dismiss Indictment [Doc. 22] be DENIED based on controlling authority.”

United States v. Craig Alan Castaneda
1:15-cr-00213-ELR-LRS; 1:25-cv-02348-ELR-LRS · 2026-07-06
Motion to vacate sentence (Craig Alan Castaneda) Denied

“it is RECOMMENDED that the instant motion to vacate (Doc. 216) be DENIED as untimely”

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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