Mark Allan Goldsmith
How Judge Goldsmith decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
Heavily reliant on the magistrate-judge referral system: most of his recent dispositive rulings are short orders ACCEPTING an R&R. When no objections are filed, he reviews the R&R only for clear error (per Thomas v. Arn) rather than de novo -- so a party that wants de novo review must file specific, timely objections.
“The failure to file a timely objection to an R&R constitutes a waiver of the right to further judicial review. ... Therefore, the Court has reviewed the R&R for clear error. On the face of the record, the Court finds no clear error and accepts the recommendation.”
On a Social Security appeal where the magistrate recommends remand, he construes a plaintiff's all-or-nothing MSJ (seeking reversal-and-award OR remand) as granted in part / denied in part -- granting the remand, denying the request for an outright award of benefits.
“Because the magistrate judge recommends remanding the case, the Court construes the magistrate judge's recommendation that the Court grant Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment as a recommendation that the Court grant in part and deny in part Plaintiff's motion.”
Cautions
In a patent case, once he grants summary judgment of non-infringement on a dispositive ground he treats the remaining Daubert and alternative-ground motions as moot rather than reaching them -- expect efficient, narrow merits dispositions that decline to address issues rendered unnecessary.
“Having found that BMW is entitled to summary judgment on this ground, the Court need not reach the issues of whether BMW is entitled to summary judgment on the remaining grounds.”
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.
| Summary judgment N = 5 |
Granted: 1Granted in part: 2Denied: 2 | counts only |
| Motions to dismiss N = 4 |
Granted: 1Granted in part: 1Denied: 2 | counts only |
| Daubert motion to exclude N = 1 |
Moot / procedural: 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.
“Defendants’ motion to dismiss (Dkt. 29) is granted in part. All claims against Evans and Ramelis are dismissed. All other claims are dismissed apart from Gooding’s excessive force and state law assault and battery claims against Stephen Ennis, Brian Otto, Smith, and the Doe Defendants.”
“Accordingly, the Court denies Defendant’s motion for summary judgment (Dkt. 46).”
“For the reasons stated in this opinion and order, the Court will GRANT BMW’s motion for summary judgment of non-infringement.”
“the Court finds that the issues of whether exclusion of Macartney’s testimony regarding damages and Dafesh’s testimony regarding infringement is warranted are moot. Accordingly, the Court will DENY BMW’s pending Daubert motions as moot.”
“grants Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment (Dkt. 13) to the extent it seeks remand but denies Plaintiff’s motion to the extent it seeks a reversal of the Commissioner’s decision and an award of benefits; and, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), remands this case to the Commissioner for further administrative proceedings.”
“the Court adopts the R&R (Dkt. 18); denies Defendant’s motion for summary judgment (Dkt. 16)”
“Accordingly, Dobronski’s motion to dismiss counterclaim number 11 is denied.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the Court denies Highflyer’s motion to dismiss in its entirely (Dkt. 33).”
“The Court grants in part and denies in part Encova’s motion for summary judgment (Dkt. 50). Within 14 days, the parties must submit a proposed judgment through which the case will be closed.”
“the Court ... adopts the 10/20/25 R&R, and grants Wellpath’s motion to dismiss (Dkt. 67). The case is dismissed with prejudice.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Nature-of-suit mix observed across his 'Mark Allan Goldsmith' enumeration (2021-2024 filings). Goldsmith carries a broad civil docket plus a heavy criminal and duty-docket load: qui tam / False Claims Act, prisoner civil rights, criminal felony, Social Security, patent, and a large volume of duty-docket search/seizure-warrant and miscellaneous applications (not counted as merits cases). Sample is observational, not a coverage-complete count.