Ann Claire Williams
How Judge Williams rules, drawn from 18 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
How Judge Williams decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Boese, Williams preserved a false-light claim where deposition and interview evidence could support a finding that the publisher subjectively doubted the challenged account.
“plaintiff has set forth enough facts in the 12(n) Statement based on the depositions of Pennington, Malm, and Brennan and the videotaped interviews with Virginia Weathers and her attorney to establish that a genuine issue of material fact exists as to actual malicé.”
In Countryman, Williams required the movants to show a clear balance favoring another forum rather than merely moving the burden between parties.
“A transfer motion will not be granted when it would merely shift inconvenience from one party to another.”
Procedural preferences
In Morgan, Williams required production of internal accident reports after applying federal privilege law and the broad disclosure policy governing federal-question discovery.
“The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure establish a broad policy which favors full disclosure of facts during discovery.”
In Fortenberry, Williams treated the movant's supported factual statement as admitted after the opposing party failed to file the required response.
“Therefore, the court will deem the facts in defendant's 12(m) statement as admitted.”
Cautions
In LaSalle National Bank, Williams denied a partial-summary-judgment request filed seven years into the case and only days after the scheduled trial date.
“The motion raises an interesting and important issue that plaintiffs should have raised months or years ago.”
In Denson, Williams applied the governing disability statute to the applicant's own limitations rather than treating an impairment category as automatically dispositive.
“Whether a person is disabled requires the court to perform an individualized inquiry, determined on a case-by-case basis.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the foregoing reasons, the court affirms Magistrate Judge Pallmeyer’s decision to grant Morgan’s Motion to Compel and overrules Union Pacific’s objections.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the court grants Denson’s motion for summary judgment and denies the Village’s motion for summary judgment.”
“The court also grants Denson’s motion for leave to add the Board as a defendant and dismisses the Village as a defendant in this case.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the court denies plaintiffs motion for summary judgment [35-1] and grants defendant’s motion for summary judgment [36-1].”
“For reasons set forth above, the court denies plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment on defendants’ counterclaim.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the court grants defendant’s motion for summary judgment.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the court grants defendants’ motion to dismiss count II and therefore dismisses this suit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”
“The court grants Pappas’ motion for summary judgment and denies the City’s motion for summary judgment.”
“Therefore, defendants’ motion to transfer this case to the Northern District of New York is granted.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the defendant’s summary judgment motion is granted.”
“For the following reasons, the court denies plaintiff’s motion insofar as it requests a bond to secure payment of attorney’s fees on appeal.”
“For the reasons stated above, plaintiff’s motion to amend her complaint to include a claim for monetary relief against defendants American Mart Corporation or 333 Building Corporation pursuant to 32 Ill.Ann.Stat. § 12.55 or the court’s federal equitable powers is denied.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the court grants defendant’s motion to dismiss Count II of plaintiff’s Amended Complaint.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 1900 days (N = 3).
The fixed five-matter sample included labor, statutory racketeering, employment civil-rights, prisoner civil-rights, and trademark cases. All five metadata records were terminated, but one closed after Williams left the district court and the sample is not a distribution of her full caseload.
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