Lanny King
How Judge King decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
On discovery disputes in first-party insurance bad-faith claims, he holds the insurer's entire claims file discoverable, distinguishing first-party from third-party bad-faith case law and limiting withheld material to narrowly-defined opinion work product.
“For discovery requests in first-party cases, because the insurance file is created on behalf of the insured, the entire file is typically discoverable by the plaintiff.”
Faced with a late or technically deficient expert disclosure, he looks for honest mistake versus gamesmanship and prefers deciding cases on the merits over the harsh sanction of exclusion, ordering a curative supplemental report instead of striking the witness.
“This Court has expressed preference for resolving cases on the merits. ... Instead, the Court will exercise its discretion and direct Plaintiffs to supplement their Expert Disclosure with a written report.”
Cautions
On Section 2255 and habeas claims he applies a strict waiver rule: an objection that merely restates prior briefing or disagrees generally, without pinpointing a specific error, is treated as no objection at all and adopted without further review.
“Watts has waived a total of eleven claims by either failing to make any objection, by failing to identify error in Judge King's Report and thereby failing to make a specific objection as required, or by doing no more than merely disagreeing with Judge King.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the court finds no merit in Claimant's Objections and will therefore adopt Magistrate Judge King's well-reasoned Report as the opinion of the court.”
“the undersigned recommends remand under Sentence Four of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) due to the problems discussed above.”
“the Magistrate Judge RECOMMENDS that the Court AFFIRM the final decision of the Commissioner, and judgment be GRANTED for the Commissioner.”
“The Court ADOPTS the Magistrate Judge's Findings of Fact and Recommendation and OVERRULES Walker's objections. ... The Court DISMISSES WITH PREJUDICE Walker's Petition.”
“Magistrate Judge King's Recommendation [R. 82] is ADOPTED as the opinion of this Court. Defendant's Motion Under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence by a Person in Federal Custody [R. 60] is DENIED.”
“Plaintiffs' motion to compel (Dkt. 83) is GRANTED”
“Defendant Zurich's motion for a protective order (Dkt. 85) is DENIED”
“The Court referred the matter to Judge King for a Report and Recommendation. ... On October 17, 2023, Judge King issued his Report concluding that each of Watts' claims should be denied. ... the Court will overrule Watts' Objections and adopt Judge King's findings and recommendations.”
“Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (DN 79) is GRANTED.”
“Plaintiff's Second Motion for Attorney's Fees (DN 84) is DENIED AS MOOT.”
“Defendants' Motion to Strike is DENIED.”
Put Judge King's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge King actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge King's own signed orders and cites them.