James Harvey
How Judge Harvey rules, drawn from 21 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Harvey no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Harvey decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
When deciding whether to excuse an untimely jury demand after removal, the court emphasized the opposing party's failure to identify prejudice or a need to prepare differently.
“Defendant neither contends that it would suffer prejudice if the Court ordered a jury trial, nor claims that it would have prepared its case differently.”
The court invalidated a college newspaper advertising veto because the officials supplied no guidelines capable of separating harmful advertising from protected speech.
“The defendants herein have taken no formal effort to make such a distinction.”
Procedural preferences
In a hybrid labor action, the court treated optional union review as insufficient to toll the federal filing deadline where the internal process could not reactivate the grievance or supply complete relief.
“the statute of limitations in hybrid § 301 actions is not tolled during the resolution of optional internal union proceedings”
Cautions
The court awarded the opponent's expenses for having to address a postjudgment-interest position that elementary research would have disproved.
“cursory research would have prevented the Court and opposing counsel from having to resolve this question”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the plaintiff’s failure to exhaust internal remedies prior to bringing this suit requires dismissal, without prejudice”
“the Court denies the plaintiff’s motion for voluntary dismissal”
“the defendants’ motion to dismiss is GRANTED, without prejudice”
“the Court AWARDS the plaintiff postjudgment interest on her damages, attorney’s fees, and costs awards at a rate of 8.15% rate, accruing on October 26, 1988”
“defendant’s motion to strike plaintiff’s jury demand is DENIED”
“plaintiff’s motion for a jury trial is GRANTED”
“the Court GRANTS the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the basis of the expiration of the relevant statute of limitations”
“defendant Sommerville’s motion for summary judgment will be DENIED without prejudice”
“defendant’s motion for a change of venue to the Southern Division is hereby GRANTED”
“the Court GRANTS the defendant’s motion for summary judgment”
“the Court GRANTS the defendant’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs section 504 claim for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted”
“further GRANTS the defendant’s motion for summary judgment with respect to the plaintiff’s section 501 claim”
“Defendant’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED”
“Defendant’s motion for pre-trial status conference is DENIED as moot”
After a bench trial, the court entered judgment for the government because the insurer failed to prove which of several possible causes produced the post-office fire. This trial judgment is retained as context and excluded from motion statistics.
“Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Harvey carried a general civil and criminal trial caseload in the Eastern District of Michigan during active and senior service. The contested outcomes described here come from his published opinions.
A historical record
Judge Harvey no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.