Leo I. Brisbois
How Judge Brisbois decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
On a motion to suppress he makes a live credibility determination and holds to it: in US v. Stewart he credited the trooper's reasonable-suspicion testimony over the defendant's claim that the squad-car video refuted it, and the district judge -- after independently reviewing the video on de novo review -- found his recommendation 'both factually and legally correct.' His suppression findings are built on the hearing record.
“the Court finds no reason to depart from the Magistrate Judge's recommendations, which are both factually and legally correct. The Magistrate Judge thoroughly considered the squad car video and the purported discrepancies.”
He runs tight pretrial management on his consent cases (Duluth): a prompt scheduling order with dispositive-motion deadlines, an early settlement conference, and he absorbs cross-MSJs onto his own calendar on consent. In Brill v. Mid-Century he held the motion hearing and then issued a final merits ruling resolving a contested underinsured-motorist coverage dispute -- granting the insurer's MSJ and capping recovery 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.”
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.
| Motions to dismiss N = 3 |
Granted: 2Granted in part: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to suppress N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to amend N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for sanctions N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Habeas petition N = 1 |
Moot / procedural: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for tro N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to remand N = 1 |
Granted: 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.
“Defendant's Motion to Suppress (Doc. No. [21]) is DENIED.”
“Defendant Hoff's Motion to Dismiss [Doc. No. 19] is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part, and Plaintiff's claims against Defendant Hoff (Counts 1, 2, and 4) are DISMISSED with prejudice;”
“Defendant JACC's Motion to Dismiss [Doc. No. 64] is GRANTED, and Plaintiff's claims against Defendant JACC (Counts 1 and 2) are DISMISSED with prejudice;”
“Defendant Schooler's Motion to Dismiss [Doc. No. 53] is GRANTED, and Plaintiff's claim against Defendant Schooler (Count 3) is DISMISSED without prejudice;”
“Plaintiff's Motion to Amend Complaint [Doc. No. 171] is DENIED in its entirety, except as to Defendant McDonald, whose summary judgment motion remains under advisement;”
“Defendant Schooler's Motion for Rule 11 Sanctions [Doc. No. 122] is GRANTED.”
“Petitioner William Charles Graham's Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus, (Dkt. 1), is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.”
“Petitioner's Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, (Dkt. 11), is DENIED.”
“Plaintiff's Motion to Remand Case to Bankruptcy Court [Docket No. 35] is GRANTED, and this matter is REMANDED to the Bankruptcy Court.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Brisbois's docket 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.