Jessica D. Hedges

How Judge Hedges rules, drawn from 4 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

Court
United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Position
magistrate
Appointed by
Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Commissioned
2024-08-01
Education
Boston College, B.A., 1994; Northeastern University School of Law, J.D., 1999
Signed orders read
4

How Judge Hedges decides

Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

What persuades

For early third-party discovery to identify an unknown defendant, she looks for a narrow request that is relevant and proportional to the claim, then adds privacy protections and an opportunity to object.

“Accordingly, the requested discovery is relevant to Strike 3’s claim and proportional to the needs of the case.”

In detention decisions, she treats reasonable assurance—not certainty—as the statutory question and evaluates whether tailored release conditions can manage the identified risks.

“No conditions of release can guarantee a defendant’s appearance.”

Signed rulings

A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.

United States v. Pepin
1:25-mj-03074-JDH · 2025-04-22
Motion for detention (government) Denied

“It is hereby ORDERED that Mr. Pepin be RELEASED pending trial, subject to the following conditions:”

United States v. Nwadavid
1:24-cr-10022-LTS · 2025-05-28
Motion for detention (government) Denied

“It is hereby ORDERED that Mr. Nwadavid be RELEASED pending trial, subject to the following conditions:”

Doe v. Converse/Malden Public Library
1:26-cv-11259-JDH · 2026-03-24
Motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis (plaintiff) Granted

“The motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis (Docket No. 2) is GRANTED.”

Motion to proceed under pseudonym (plaintiff) Denied

“The motion to proceed under a pseudonym (Docket No. 3) is DENIED.”

Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe
1:26-cv-12218-JDH · 2026-06-22
Motion for early discovery (plaintiff) Granted

“For the foregoing reasons, Strike 3’s motion for leave to serve a third-party subpoena prior to a Rule 26(f) conference, Docket No. 7, is ALLOWED subject to the following restrictions:”

Caseload & timing

From public federal docket records for this judge.

Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 73 days (N = 7).

Median motion-to-ruling time: 2 days (N = 12).

The motion-bearing dockets included securities enforcement, telephone-consumer-protection, personal-injury, admiralty, and defamation matters. The broader screened set also included recently filed and settlement-only cases that supplied duration context but no classifiable ruling.

Draft for Judge Hedges with the record in hand

Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Hedges, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.

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