Albert Berry III
How Judge Berry rules, drawn from 2 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Berry
Albert Berry III was sworn in as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Illinois in May 2025 and sits in Chicago. Before joining the bench, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Violent Crimes Section in the district's U.S. Attorney's Office. He previously worked for the Illinois Attorney General's Office and the Chicago Transit Authority.
Judge Berry's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Berry, as published on the court's website (checked October 8, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
Key rules
Sealing
Parties may agree to keep unfiled discovery confidential without a court order.
“The parties may properly agree among themselves to limit disclosure of unfiled discovery information to certain specified persons during the litigation and not to voluntarily disseminate such information to other persons. Court approval of such an agreement or a court order is not necessary. Such an agreement may well address most of the parties’ confidentiality concerns since only a small subset of discovery is typically ever filed in the public court record or used during a court proceeding.”
Sealing
For a court confidentiality order, use the local model and redline any additions or deletions.
“B. Confidentiality/Protective Orders: If the parties require a confidentiality order be entered by the Court, they are directed to use the model confidentiality order approved by the full Court and set forth in the Local Rules: Form LR 26.2 Model Confidentiality Order. While the parties may deviate from the model order, any additions and deletions are to be red-lined.”
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 8, 2026).
How Judge Berry decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In a Section 1983 dismissal decision, he dismissed claims barred by absolute immunity or limitations while allowing allegations that depended on disputed factual inferences to proceed. He dismissed the municipal-liability claims because the complaint alleged only the plaintiff’s own incident.
“Plaintiff has not posited any factual allegations that extend beyond his own personal circumstances, and has only pointed to his own single occurrence of constitutional violations.”
In an Illinois Sales Representative Act bench trial, he entered judgment for two sales representatives but declined treble damages after finding no willful or wanton conduct. He treated the principal’s error as a bona fide misunderstanding of the statute.
“It appears that the Defendant simply had a bona fide misunderstanding about how the ISRA worked. The Court does not believe treble damages are appropriate here and will not order the Defendant to pay treble damages.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Defendants' Second Motion to Dismiss For Failure to State a Claim [15] is granted in part and denied in part. The motion is granted as follows: 1) all claims against Defendants Ryan Koehl, Donald Tyer, and Stephen Scheller, whom were all Lake County State's Attorneys, are dismissed based on absolute prosecutorial immunity; 2) Counts 1 and 8 of Plaintiff's Amended Complaint are dismissed as untimely to the extent they are based on Plaintiff's false arrest, but may go forward to the extent they are based on Plaintiff's unlawful detention; 3) Counts 2, 5, 6, 9, and 10 are dismissed; and 4) all claims against Defendants in their official capacities are dismissed without prejudice. The remainder of the motion is denied and Counts 3, 4, 7, and 11 may proceed as pled.”
Following a bench trial, he found unpaid commissions under the Illinois Sales Representative Act, entered judgment for both plaintiffs, declined treble damages, and directed a later accounting of attorney fees and costs. The verdict resolves claims tried to the court, rather than a filed motion.
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 | 8 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 1 |
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 Northern District of Illinois, not for Judge Berry: 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 | 12,205 | 5.9 months |
| Closed with no court action | 4,300 | 7 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 7,558 | 5.4 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 305 | 12.6 months |
| Closed during trial | 42 | 49.5 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 12,205 | 5.9 months |
| Sep 2024 | 9,700 | 6.8 months |
| Sep 2023 | 7,093 | 6 months |
| Sep 2022 | 6,841 | 7.3 months |
| Sep 2021 | 9,703 | 15.1 months |
| Sep 2020 | 8,046 | 10.6 months |
| Sep 2019 | 8,134 | 7.4 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 Berry with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Berry, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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