Geraldine Soat Brown
How Judge Brown rules, drawn from 9 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Brown no longer sits on this court. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Brown
Geraldine Soat Brown served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Illinois from 2000 until her retirement in 2016. She was the court's Presiding Magistrate Judge from 2012 to 2016 and previously practiced commercial and construction litigation.
How Judge Brown decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Pinnacle Performance's contract case, she granted the defendants' motion to enforce the settlement agreement reached at a settlement conference and denied the other pending motions as moot.
“For the reasons stated below, Defendants’ Motion For Enforcement of Settlement Agreement Dated September 6, 2012 (Defs.’ Mot.) [dkt 78] is granted.”
Procedural preferences
In Smentek v. Sheriff of Cook County, Brown denied the plaintiffs’ request to reopen fact discovery to depose witnesses disclosed after the deadline.
“For the reasons set out in the following order, Plaintiff's Amended Motion to Reopen Discovery to Allow Depositions of Witnesses Disclosed by Defendants After the Close of Fact Discovery [280] is denied.”
In Malibu Media v. John Doe, Brown partly granted a motion to seal by allowing limited redactions while requiring a public version of the filing.
“Malibu's motion is granted in part and denied in part.”
Cautions
In Gray v. Burke, Brown sustained some objections to the prevailing defendants’ bill of costs and reduced the taxable amount to $3,392.30.
“For the foregoing reasons, Gray's objections are granted in part and denied in part, and Defendants' Bill of Costs is reduced to $3,392.30.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the reasons set out below, the motion is granted.”
“Malibu's motion is granted in part and denied in part.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Gray's objections are granted in part and denied in part, and Defendants' Bill of Costs is reduced to $3,392.30.”
“For the reasons stated below, Defendants' Motion For Enforcement of Settlement Agreement Dated September 6, 2012 (Defs.' Mot.) [dkt 78] is granted.”
“Plaintiff's motion to supplement Dr. Milby's expert disclosure is denied.”
“For the reasons set out below, plaintiff Tile Unlimited, Inc.'s Motion to Compel Deposition Under the Federal Rules (Pl.'s Mot.) [dkt 162] is denied without prejudice.”
“For the reasons set out below, the motion is granted in part and denied in part.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Plaintiff's Petition for Fees is granted.”
“For the reasons set out in the following order, Plaintiff's Amended Motion to Reopen Discovery to Allow Depositions of Witnesses Disclosed by Defendants After the Close of Fact Discovery [280] is denied.”
Omnibus order addressing the parties' referred motions in limine before a Section 1983 trial. The overall disposition was 'ruled upon as set out herein' and included granted, denied, and partially granted requests, while Defendants' Motion in Limine No. 1 and Plaintiffs' Motion in Limine No. 11 were reserved. Because the single disposition line does not cleanly identify each individual result, the order is presented as a trial-management example rather than divided into separate motion outcomes.
“For the foregoing reasons, the Commissioner's motion for summary judgment is denied. The case is remanded pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) for further proceedings consistent with this memorandum opinion and order.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiff's Motion to Compel Third Party Deposition Witness Gina Bruhn to Answer Questions [64] is denied.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- Brown's enumerable docket under her name is entirely criminal/government miscellaneous matters typical of a magistrate judge on duty (search-warrant applications, parcel/storage-unit/property seizure and forfeiture proceedings), all opened and closed the same day.
- Her civil reasoning work — referred discovery and pretrial motions, consent dispositions, sealing and settlement-enforcement rulings, fee/cost rulings, and Reports and Recommendations to district judges — is reflected in the published orders above, not in an enumerable assigned-case list. The court bio notes she presided over thousands of civil cases (employment, breach of contract, civil rights, torts, civil RICO) in pretrial and trial stages and mediated settlement conferences in nearly every civil case type.
A historical record
Judge Brown no longer sits on this court. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled here. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.