Lisa Godbey Wood
How Judge Wood rules, drawn from 29 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Wood
Lisa Godbey Wood is a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Judge Wood received a commission on February 8, 2007.
Judge Wood's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Wood, as published on the court's website (checked October 9, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
- Procedures for eFiling PSIs and Responses ↗
- Statement Regarding Assignment of Case to a U.S. Magistrate Judge ↗
Key rules
Filing
In Wood criminal cases, both government and defense counsel must file a response to the initial presentence report.
“1. Counsel for the United States and the defendant MUST each file a response to the initial”
Filing
A party without objections to the presentence report must file a statement saying so.
“party must file a statement of no objections on the record.”
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 Wood decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On summary judgment in a products-liability case, she separated the factual dispute (what happened) from the legal question of proximate cause, and applied a foreseeability/intervening-cause framework closely tied to on-point precedent rather than simply crediting the plaintiff's expert affidavit.
“Manning's negligence was the proximate cause of Plaintiff's injuries, and that negligence was not foreseeable to Defendant.”
Reviewing a federal agency's reversal of its own prior approval, she demanded a reasoned explanation for the changed position and faulted the agency for measuring its own program against the wrong baseline and relying on a factor it was not permitted to consider.
“CMS failed to consider or weigh the possibility that rescinding would mean less Medicaid coverage in Georgia. The Agency measured Pathways against a baseline of full Medicaid expansion, rather than taking the demonstration on its own terms. ... It considered and relied on an impermissible factor, 'health equity.'”
Procedural preferences
In Georgia Republican Party v. Raffensperger, she dismissed an emergency election complaint for lack of standing and denied the accompanying request for temporary and preliminary relief as moot on the day the suit was filed.
“the Court DISMISSES Plaintiffs' Complaint, dkt. no. 1, for lack of standing, and DENIES AS MOOT Plaintiffs' Emergency Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction, dkt. no. 3.”
In Rhone v. George, Wood dismissed the municipal-liability claim with prejudice because the plaintiff’s allegation that a city policy or custom caused the violation was conclusory; the individual-officer claims continued.
“his allegation that Defendant City 'has maintained a policy, custom, or practice that has been the cause, the moving force, behind the violation of citizens' rights' is conclusory and not entitled to a presumption of truth.”
Cautions
In an insurance bad-faith case she wrote a detailed, candid factual narrative before ruling, and granted summary judgment once a claimant's own sworn accounts of a loss proved mutually contradictory: a policyholder who tells two incompatible stories under oath forfeits coverage under a standard concealment-or-fraud clause even where other coverage issues remain genuinely disputed.
“Plaintiff, under oath, provided two representations to Heritage ... Both propositions cannot be true. ... Plaintiff misrepresented the facts supporting his claim for the televisions.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Accordingly, the motions to transfer venue, dkt. nos. 10, 13, are GRANTED. The Clerk is DIRECTED to transfer this case to the Middle District of Georgia, Valdosta Division. Defendant El Toreo's motion to dismiss, dkt. no. 7, remains pending.”
“the Court DISMISSES Plaintiffs' Complaint, dkt. no. 1, for lack of standing, and DENIES AS MOOT Plaintiffs' Emergency Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction, dkt. no. 3. Accordingly, this case is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“Because Defendant could not reasonably foresee the negligence of a third party that proximately caused Plaintiff's injuries, Defendant's motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”
“Plaintiff's motion to strike is DENIED.”
“ORDER sustaining in part and overruling in part the APPEAL OF MAGISTRATE JUDGE DECISION to District Court by Brunswick Housing Authority... The Defendant shall have thirty (30) days from the date of this Order to move on the racial discrimination claim.”
“ORDER granting defendant's [28] Motion for Summary Judgment and [53] Motion for Summary Judgment. Signed by Chief Judge Lisa G. Wood on 3/31/15.”
“ORDER granting [34] Motion for Summary Judgment. The Clerk is directed to close this case. Signed by Judge Lisa G. Wood on 09/02/2020.”
“ORDER granting Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, Inc. [70] Motion for Summary Judgment. The Clerk of Court is directed to enter a judgment dismissing Coca-Cola with prejudice. Signed by Judge Lisa G. Wood on 2/26/2021.”
“ORDERED that due to lack of subject matter jurisdiction, this case is REMANDED to Camden County Superior Court re [89] Notice filed by Wal-Mart Stores East, LP. Signed by Judge Lisa G. Wood on 3/2/2021.”
“Defendant City of Kingsland's motion to dismiss, dkt. no. 7, is GRANTED, and Plaintiff's claims against the City are DISMISSED with prejudice. The Clerk is DIRECTED to terminate the City as a defendant in this action.”
“Defendant Heritage's motion for summary judgment, dkt. no. 25, is GRANTED. ... There being no claims remaining in this action, the Clerk is DIRECTED to close this case.”
“Heritage's motion to strike Plaintiff's supplemental brief, dkt. no. 38, is thus DENIED as moot.”
“ORDER ADOPTING [4] REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS as the opinion of the Court and DISMISSES [1] Petition without prejudice. The Clerk of Court is DIRECTED to CLOSE this case ... and DENY Petitioner's in forma pauperis status on appeal and Certificate of Appealability.”
“ORDER ADOPTING the [47] REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS as the Court's opinion, overruling Cobb's [49] Objections, granting Respondent's [7] Motion to Dismiss, dismissing Cobb's petitions, directing the Clerk of Court to close this case and enter the appropriate judgment of dismissal, and denying Cobb IFP status on appeal.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median motion-to-ruling time: 106 days (N = 15).
Across four decades of filing cohorts her caseload mixes a heavy volume of pro se prisoner civil-rights and habeas matters (state and federal) with employment discrimination, products-liability, insurance, contract, and Social Security appeals, plus a recurring docket of high-profile election and federal-agency litigation out of the Brunswick Division (the 2020-2021 runoff-election suits, a state Medicaid-waiver challenge against CMS, and the Coffee County election-equipment discovery dispute tied to the broader statewide voting-machine litigation).
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 | 2 |
| 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 | 2 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 1 | 0 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 1 | 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 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, not for Judge Wood: 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 | 558 | 7.6 months |
| Closed with no court action | 29 | 5 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 523 | 7.7 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 2 | not reported |
| Closed during trial | 4 | not reported |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 558 | 7.6 months |
| Sep 2024 | 565 | 6.8 months |
| Sep 2023 | 563 | 7 months |
| Sep 2022 | 551 | 10.6 months |
| Sep 2021 | 532 | 8.9 months |
| Sep 2020 | 526 | 8.9 months |
| Sep 2019 | 533 | 8.8 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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