Sidney I. Schenkier
How Judge Schenkier rules, drawn from 7 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Schenkier no longer sits on this court. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Schenkier
Sidney I. Schenkier served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Illinois from 1998 until his retirement in 2019. He was the court's Presiding Magistrate Judge from 2008 to 2012 and previously practiced civil litigation in Chicago.
How Judge Schenkier decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Youn's insurance-fraud case, he granted the defendants summary judgment on the private-insurer claim because the relator did not identify insurer-specific medical-necessity standards or the contracts he relied on.
“But as to what contracts relator refers, the Court can only guess; he identifies none.”
Procedural preferences
In Hudson v. Protech Security Group, Schenkier granted first-stage conditional certification of an overtime collective based on the plaintiff’s affidavit, sampled payroll records, and the employer’s admissions about classifying workers as contractors. He deferred the wording of opt-in notice until the parties conferred.
“Plaintiff may make a modest factual showing that conditional certification is warranted under the FLSA by presenting evidence that similarly situated employees were subject to the same policy that misclassified them as exempt employees.”
Cautions
In Roehl v. City of Naperville, Schenkier allowed a procedural due process damages claim over a booking fee to proceed because the alleged lack of any pre- or post-deprivation process stated a plausible claim. He dismissed the prospective claims as moot after the ordinance changed.
“the broad spectrum of arrestees who would be subject to the 2009 Ordinance further suggests to the Court that a motion to dismiss is not the best vehicle in which to address Mr. Roehl's claims”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“we grant plaintiffs motion for conditional certification of a collective action under the FLSA (doc. #25). However, we deny plaintiffs request to approve the form of notice and consent attached to the motion.”
“we deny relator's motion for summary judgment on Count I and grant defendants' motion for summary judgment on Counts II and III.”
“defendant's motion to dismiss plaintiffs complaint (doc. #26) is granted in part, and denied in part: the motion is granted insofar as we dismiss plaintiffs claim for declaratory and injunctive relief, but we deny the motion as to plaintiffs claim for damages.”
“we grant summary judgment for the defendants on Count I of the amended complaint for fraud and for Norvax on Count III for breach of contract.”
“We grant in part Northbound's motion for partial summary judgment on Count III for the withheld earn-out payments, and grant Leadbot's corresponding motion for summary judgment on Count III other than for plaintiffs claim for the withheld earn-out payments.”
“We also grant counter-defendants' motion for summary judgment on all three counts of the counterclaim asserted against them.”
“the Court grants the State Defendants’ motion for summary judgment ... but we deny the State Defendants’ motion for summary judgment as to plaintiffs claim that Dr. Newbold was deliberately indifferent by delaying obtaining a night guard for Mr. King (doc. # 246).”
“we grant the Wexford Defendants’ motion for summary judgment as to plaintiffs claims against Dr. Fattore-Bruno and Wexford, but we deny the motion for summary judgment as to the claims against Dr. Chapman and Dr. Ghosh as identified in this opinion (doc. # 238).”
“Dexia's motion to compel (doc. # 208) is granted in part and denied in part, in line with the Court's rulings herein. To the extent that they have not already been produced, all documents on the Tatooles Firm's Privilege Log that are subject to the common interest privilege shall be produced to Dexia by June 7, 2005.”
“plaintiff's motion for class certification (doc. # 125) is denied.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 1034 days (N = 4).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 160 days (N = 3).
- Schenkier's docket combined two very different streams: full consent civil cases that he carried to final judgment under 28 U.S.C. 636(c), spanning wage-and-hour (FLSA), qui tam False Claims Act, commercial/contract, and civil-rights matters, and a heavy volume of search-warrant and sealed miscellaneous duty-magistrate matters that resolve the same day.
- He was also the long-time supervising/mediating judge of the decades-old Shakman patronage litigation.
- The duration sample below is drawn from his contested consent merits cases (the ones that produced written opinions) and is therefore biased toward long, hard-fought cases; it is not a random caseload sample.
A historical record
Judge Schenkier 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.