Young B. Kim
How Judge Kim decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On consent Social Security review he both remands (where the ALJ analysis is deficient) and affirms (where supported) — outcomes here split one each. He decides these as final judgments, so a claimant should build the substantial-evidence challenge fully rather than assume a remand.
“For the foregoing reasons, George's motion for summary judgment is granted, the Commissioner's motion is denied, and the matter is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
Procedural preferences
On discovery he grants motions to compel but tailors the production narrowly rather than ordering everything sought — e.g., compelling a redacted retainer agreement limited to the date, the authorization section, and the signature, and denying the rest. Frame compel requests narrowly and be ready for a partial, redacted order.
“The motion is granted to the extent that Corral is ordered to produce to MVP a copy of the retainer agreement in its original form, showing only the date of the agreement, the section entitled "Retainer and Authorization," and her signature.”
Cautions
On referred criminal pretrial matters he scrutinizes the government's Rule 404(b) other-acts evidence and will deny admission where the prosecution does not satisfy the rule — prior-acts evidence is not admitted by default before him.
“For the foregoing reasons, the government's motion in limine is denied.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Motions to compel N = 4 |
Granted: 2Granted in part: 2 | counts only |
| Social security review N = 2 |
Granted: 1Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to amend N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion in limine N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the foregoing reasons, George's motion for summary judgment is granted, the Commissioner's motion is denied, and the matter is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Mario's motion for summary judgment is denied and the government's granted.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Anna's motion to amend her complaint is denied.”
“For the foregoing reasons, HOD's motion to compel is granted.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiff's motion to compel is granted.”
“For the following reasons, the motion is granted in part, denied in part without prejudice, and denied in part with prejudice:”
“For the foregoing reasons, MVP's motion to compel is granted in part and denied in part.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the government's motion in limine is denied.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Kim is an active magistrate judge; his recency-sorted enumerable docket docket in 2026 is duty-magistrate work (sealed/suppressed search-warrant and grand-jury mc matters, criminal duty assignments). His civil reasoning work — Social Security consent dispositions, referred discovery (motions to compel/amend), and referred criminal pretrial motions — is reflected in the GovInfo reasoning layer.