Chelsea J. Crawford
How Judge Crawford rules, drawn from 10 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Crawford
Chelsea J. Crawford joined the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland as a magistrate judge in March 2025. She previously litigated civil rights, personal injury, and commercial cases at Brown, Goldstein & Levy and clerked for Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher and Fourth Circuit Judge Andre M. Davis.
Judge Crawford's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Crawford's own (checked October 9, 2026), so the court's local rules and general orders are the place to look (court page ↗).
Standing orders for every case in this court
Orders the court applies to all of its cases, whichever judge has them, as published on the court's website (checked October 9, 2026).
- Order 2026-05: Redacted Filings in FRCP 5.2(c) Cases ↗
- Order 2026-03: Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Court Filings ↗
- Order 2025-05: Procedures for the Filing of Sealed Documents ↗
- Amended Order 2021-13: Removal Actions ↗
- Amended Order 2022-04: Social Security Cases ↗
- Second Amended Order 2021-02: Highly Sensitive Documents ↗
- Order 2020-01: Discovery in Criminal Cases ↗
- Order 2018-07: Amicus Briefs ↗
- Order 2018-08: Service of Rule 68 Offers of Judgment ↗
- Second Amended Order 2025-01: Petitions for Writs of Habeas Corpus—Alien Detainee ↗
- Order 2024-01: Deficiency Notices ↗
How Judge Crawford decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On removed diversity premises-liability and negligence suits, grants a defendant's summary judgment where the plaintiff produces no evidence of a breach of duty — for example, where a hazard was open and obvious and the invitee could have avoided it with ordinary care.
“The court GRANTS Sam's Club's Motion for Summary Judgment.”
Procedural preferences
Enforces arbitration agreements under the FAA, allowing even a non-signatory to compel arbitration under intertwined-claims and agency principles, and staying the case rather than dismissing it.
“Four Season's Motion to Compel Arbitration and Stay Proceedings is GRANTED.”
On class-discovery disputes, permits discovery to proceed but phases it and tailors it to Rule 26 proportionality, starting with the most relevant categories rather than opening full class-wide discovery at once.
“the Court will order discovery as to the putative class to proceed, albeit in phases, given the volume of discovery at issue... at this stage, the Court will limit discovery beyond the named Plaintiffs to only the rental licensure status of Henderson-Webb's other Maryland properties and any failure-to-pay rent actions filed by Blibaum within the timeframes set out in the class definitions.”
Denies motions to stay discovery pending a motion to dismiss and holds belated written discovery objections waived under Rule 33(b)(4).
“For the reasons explained below, Defendants' Motion to Stay is DENIED... I find that Defendants have waived their objections to Plaintiffs' First Set of Discovery Requests.”
Cautions
Requires a movant seeking reconsideration to actually satisfy — or at least address — the Rule 60(b) threshold requirements; a motion that ignores them is denied without reaching the enumerated grounds.
“Having failed to satisfy (or even address) the threshold requirements pursuant to Rule 60(b), I decline to address any of the six enumerated grounds for relief... Plaintiff's Motion is DENIED.”
In Adams, Crawford remanded because the ALJ had not adequately accounted for a moderate concentration, persistence, or pace limitation in the residual functional capacity finding. She expressed no view on ultimate benefit entitlement.
“The ALJ fails to satisfy any of the three conditions that could have accounted for Adams’s moderate CPP limitation. As a result, the ALJ erred, and remand is warranted.”
In Walker, Crawford remanded for a fuller explanation of how the ALJ evaluated the supportability and consistency of several medical opinions.
“On remand, the ALJ should properly explain how he considered the supportability of Dr. Kurichh’s opinion, the consistency of CNRP Johnson’s opinion, and the supportability and consistency of Dr. Roda’s and Dr. Rutherford, Jr.’s opinions pursuant to 20 C.F.R. § 416.920c.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“The court GRANTS Sam's Club's Motion for Summary Judgment.”
“it is ORDERED that Walmart's Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 18) is GRANTED.”
“it is ORDERED that Defendant D.R. Horton's Motion for Summary Judgment, ECF No. 26, is GRANTED.”
“Four Season's Motion to Compel Arbitration and Stay Proceedings is GRANTED.”
“Mr. Burgess's Motion to Stay the Matter and to Compel Arbitration is GRANTED.”
“Transdev's Motion for Leave to File Amended Answer and Affirmative Defenses and Counterclaim is GRANTED.”
“WHC's Motion to File Under Seal Exhibit A to Its Opposition to Transdev's Motion for Leave is DENIED AS MOOT.”
“Having failed to satisfy (or even address) the threshold requirements pursuant to Rule 60(b), I decline to address any of the six enumerated grounds for relief... Plaintiff's Motion is DENIED.”
“For the reasons explained below, Defendants' Motion to Stay is DENIED... I find that Defendants have waived their objections to Plaintiffs' First Set of Discovery Requests.”
“the Court will order discovery as to the putative class to proceed, albeit in phases, given the volume of discovery at issue... at this stage, the Court will limit discovery beyond the named Plaintiffs to only the rental licensure status of Henderson-Webb's other Maryland properties and any failure-to-pay rent actions filed by Blibaum within the timeframes set out in the class definitions.”
“The case is REMANDED for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.”
“The case is REMANDED for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- By consent under 28 U.S.C. 636(c), Crawford handles a general civil mix dominated by diversity tort suits removed from Maryland state court, including premises-liability and motor-vehicle negligence claims against national retailers, alongside commercial-contract and maritime disputes.
- She also resolves discovery and pretrial matters referred from other judges' cases and handles criminal-duty matters.
- Her 2026 assignments show the same tort-heavy mix, and too few cases have ended to support representative duration figures.
Pending matters in the official report
Reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the Civil Justice Reform Act, as of March 31, 2026.
| Motions pending more than six months | 0 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 2 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 2 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of United States District Court for the District of Maryland, not for Judge Crawford: median time from filing to disposition of the civil cases the court closed in the 12 months ending September 30, 2025, as reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
| Cases | Median time | |
|---|---|---|
| All civil cases closed | 3,191 | 6.7 months |
| Closed with no court action | 151 | 5.7 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 2,564 | 5.9 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 457 | 13.6 months |
| Closed during trial | 19 | 33.9 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 3,191 | 6.7 months |
| Sep 2024 | 3,119 | 7.5 months |
| Sep 2023 | 3,370 | 9 months |
| Sep 2022 | 3,053 | 9.5 months |
| Sep 2021 | 2,629 | 8.9 months |
| Sep 2020 | 2,469 | 9 months |
| Sep 2019 | 2,709 | 7.9 months |
The table leaves out prisoner petitions, land condemnations, deportation reviews, recovery of overpayments and enforcement of judgments, and reports no median for fewer than 10 cases. A district that closed a large multidistrict litigation in the period shows very large counts and long medians for that year. Source: Table C-5, U.S. District Courts (spreadsheet).
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