Leo I. Brisbois
How Judge Brisbois rules, drawn from 16 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Brisbois
Leo I. Brisbois has served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Minnesota since August 2010, sitting in Duluth. A graduate of Hamline University and its law school, he previously served in the United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps and practiced law privately.
Judge Brisbois's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Brisbois'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).
- Amended Administrative Order: Procedures for Storage and Management of Sealed Documents ↗
- General Order No. 1: Filing Sealed Documents with Highly Sensitive Information ↗
- General Order No. 2: Removing Sealed Documents with Highly Sensitive Information from CM/ECF ↗
- Administrative Order: Encryption of Electronic Materials and Cloud Storage Links ↗
How Judge Brisbois decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
In Stewart, Brisbois credited a trooper’s testimony after comparing it with the squad-car video and recommended denying suppression for lack of a contradiction in the recording. The district judge later adopted the recommendation.
“Trooper Otterson’s hearing testimony is credible”
In Brill v. Mid-Century Insurance Co., he resolved the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment in a consent case, granting the insurer's motion and fixing the recoverable underinsured-motorist benefit at $147,000.
“ORDER granting 14 Motion for Summary Judgment; denying 20 Motion for Summary Judgment. Defendant is obligated to pay $147,000.00 to Plaintiff as recoverable underinsured motorist coverage benefits on account of the September 27, 2015, death of Richard Brill.”
In a civil-rights case removed from state court, Brisbois recommended dismissing claims against a jail because the jail was not a suable entity under Section 1983. He recommended dismissal without prejudice despite the defendant’s request for dismissal with prejudice, preserving the chance to name a suable party.
“to the extent Defendant’s Motion seeks the dismissal with prejudice of Plaintiff’s Complaint, the undersigned recommends that Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, [Docket No. 5], be DENIED in part.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Defendant’s Motion to Suppress Evidence Obtained as a Result of Search and Seizure, [Docket No. 21], be DENIED”
“Defendant Hoff’s Motion to Dismiss, [Docket No. 19], be GRANTED in part”
“JACC Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, [Docket No. 64], be GRANTED”
“Defendant Schooler’s Motion to Dismiss, [Docket No. 53], be GRANTED, and that Plaintiff’s claim (Count III) against Defendant Schooler be DISMISSED with prejudice”
“Plaintiff’s Motion to Amend Complaint, [Docket No. 171], be DENIED in its entirety”
“Defendant Schooler’s Motion for Rule 11 Sanctions, [Docket No. 122], be GRANTED”
“Petitioner William Charles Graham’s Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, [Docket No. 1], be DISMISSED without prejudice”
“Petitioner’s Application to Proceed in District Court Without Prepaying Fees or Costs, [Docket No. 2], be DENIED as moot”
“Petitioner’s Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, [Docket No. 11], be DENIED”
“Plaintiff’s motion to remand the matter to bankruptcy court [Docket No. 35] be GRANTED”
“Defendant’s Motion for Disclosure of Sensitive Minor Documents, [Docket No. 28], is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part”
“Defendant’s Motion for Discovery of Expert Under Rule 16(a)(1)(G), [Docket No. 31], is GRANTED”
“Defendant’s Motion for Disclosure of Rule 404(b) Evidence, [Docket No. 32], is GRANTED”
“Defendant’s Motion to Suppress Statements, [Docket No. 26], be DENIED”
“Defendant’s Motion to Suppress Evidence, [Docket No. 27], be DENIED”
“Defendant Buck and Defendant Moldenhauer’s Motions to Dismiss, [Docket No. 45], be GRANTED in part and DENIED in part”
“Hennepin County Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, [Docket No. 53], be GRANTED in part and DENIED in part”
“Plaintiff’s Motion to Strike, [Docket No. 76], be DENIED as moot”
“Plaintiff’s Motion for a Conference, [Docket No. 84], be DENIED as moot”
“Plaintiff’s Motion for Production of Documents, [Docket No. 85], be DENIED as moot”
“IT IS HEREBY RECOMMENDED THAT Gerson C.P.’s Petition for a writ of habeas corpus, [Docket No. 1], be DENIED without prejudice.”
“Plaintiff’s request for relief, [Docket No. 13], be DENIED and;”
“Defendant’s request for relief, [Docket No. 15], be GRANTED.”
“This action be DISMISSED without prejudice; and”
“Plaintiff Ryan C. Edner’s Application to Proceed in District Court Without Prepaying Fees or Costs, [Docket No. 2], be DENIED as moot.”
“this matter be DISMISSED without prejudice for failure to prosecute”
“Defendant’s Motion for Severance of Defendants, [Docket No. 530], be DENIED without prejudice, as set forth above.”
“That the Defendant’s Motion to Suppress Statements as Fruits of his Unlawful Arrest [Docket No. 14] be GRANTED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- Brisbois's the docket records footprint is dominated by referral work on Duluth-division civil and criminal cases (insurance, ERISA, contract, fraud, civil-rights, patent, criminal).
- On consent he handles full civil cases through final judgment.
- Example consent case: Brill v. Mid-Century Insurance filed 2017-09-25, terminated 2019-02-04 (~497 days; an underinsured-motorist coverage dispute resolved on cross-MSJ).
- Sampled 2026-06-03; not exhaustive; durations not fully tabulated this thin pass.
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 | 1 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 0 |
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 Minnesota, not for Judge Brisbois: 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 | 2,681 | 8.2 months |
| Closed with no court action | 1,499 | 5.6 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 645 | 7.4 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 525 | 13.3 months |
| Closed during trial | 12 | 39.4 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 2,681 | 8.2 months |
| Sep 2024 | 2,636 | 8.3 months |
| Sep 2023 | 2,579 | 7 months |
| Sep 2022 | 2,701 | 5.8 months |
| Sep 2021 | 2,737 | 7.7 months |
| Sep 2020 | 3,259 | 14.3 months |
| Sep 2019 | 8,151 | 21.6 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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