Eric I. Long
How Judge Long rules, drawn from 3 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Long
Eric I. Long has served as a United States magistrate judge in the Central District of Illinois since 2015. He was reappointed to an eight-year term beginning in May 2023 and serves in the Urbana Division. Before joining the bench, he held senior posts in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois.
Judge Long's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Long, as published on the court's website (checked October 11, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
- Memorandum to Counsel Regarding Rule 16 Scheduling Conferences in Cases before U.S. District Judge Colin S. Bruce and U.S. Magistrate Judge Eric I. Long ↗
- Suggested Form for Proposed Discovery Plan for Judge Eric Long ↗
Key rules
Motions
Request oral argument in the motion or response; the court ordinarily decides motions without argument.
“The Court does not typically schedule oral argument on motions. Motions are taken under advisement and ruled upon by the Court without oral argument.”
Discovery
Later scheduling extensions, including agreed requests, are granted only in exceptional circumstances.
“Subsequent requests for extension (even if by agreement) will be granted only under exceptional circumstances.”
Discovery
Submit the proposed discovery plan at least seven days before the scheduling conference.
“The parties are directed to develop a proposed discovery plan which shall be submitted to the Court not less than seven (7) days prior to the scheduling conference.”
Conferences
Submit the proposed discovery plan seven days before the Rule 16 conference to have an in-person conference converted to a telephone conference.
“If the parties have complied with the Court's order setting the scheduling conference by submitting their proposed discovery plan to the Court seven days prior to the scheduled conference, the Court will automatically convert the hearing from personal appearance to telephone conference.”
Conferences
The court disregards a consent to magistrate jurisdiction tendered a few months before trial.
“The Court will view a consent tendered a few months before trial as an effort to obtain a continuance. Those consents will be ignored and no order of reference entered.”
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 Long decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
For an agency enforcement action, he distinguished a charging party's own statement from a statement the agency adopted when assessing hearsay.
“For these reasons, the Court finds that the EEOC is the real party in this case and that Kerr, as the charging party, is not actually a party to this lawsuit for the purposes of Rule 801(d)(2)(A).”
Procedural preferences
He reserved the admissibility of specific interview statements until the proponent identified them at trial.
“Therefore, RAC must tender the statements it wants admitted and show, outside the presence of the jury under Rule 104, that the EEOC has adopted them pursuant to Rule 801(d)(2)(B).”
In a hotel-guest discovery dispute, Long narrowed a six-month records request to a letter mailed by defense counsel to guests from the two weeks before and after the incident, protecting nonparty privacy.
“This mechanism adequately balances relevance and proportionality.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the reasons discussed above, Plaintiff's Oral Motion to exclude statements made by Megan Kerr is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part, with particularity reserved until the precise statements are tendered at trial.”
“the Court recommends that the District Court deny Plaintiff’s Motion for Sanctions (#57).”
“Compliance with Discovery (#59) is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The eleven reviewed cases include employment, debt collection, commercial, labor, personal injury, and civil rights disputes. Selection for readable motion entries prevents a court-wide caseload estimate.
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 | 6 | 16 |
| Sep 2024 | 3 | 10 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 6 |
| Sep 2023 | 5 | 7 |
| Mar 2023 | 1 | 6 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 9 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 9 |
| Sep 2021 | 1 | 4 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 3 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 4 |
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 Central District of Illinois, not for Judge Long: 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 | 760 | 7.3 months |
| Closed with no court action | 315 | 6.2 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 438 | 8.4 months |
| Closed during trial | 7 | not reported |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 760 | 7.3 months |
| Sep 2024 | 704 | 8 months |
| Sep 2023 | 625 | 10.8 months |
| Sep 2022 | 637 | 11.7 months |
| Sep 2021 | 684 | 9.9 months |
| Sep 2020 | 629 | 10.4 months |
| Sep 2019 | 653 | 10.1 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 Long with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Long, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
Opens in Ezel Pro.
- Grounded in Judge Long's own signed orders
- Cites every source it relies on, so you can verify it
- Chat, drafting and research in one workspace