Kenneth D. Bell
How Judge Bell rules, drawn from 14 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Bell
Kenneth Davis Bell, Sr. is a judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Appointed by President Donald J. Trump, Judge Bell received a commission on June 12, 2019.
Judge Bell's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Bell, as published on the court's website (checked October 9, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
- Pretrial Order and Case Management Plan ↗
- Standing Arraignment Order ↗
- Standing Order Governing Jury Selection and Instruction in Civil Cases ↗
- Standing Order Requiring an Initial Settlement Conference in Civil Cases ↗
Key rules
Contacting chambers
Do not deliver courtesy copies of memoranda or exhibits unless the court asks for them.
“Except as requested by the Court, parties should not deliver ‘courtesy copies’ of memoranda or exhibits to the Judge’s chambers or the Clerk of Court.”
Motions
Motions other than specified Rule 12, 23, 56, and 65 motions must include a proposed order submitted through CyberClerk in Word or rich text format.
“All pretrial motions other than motions made pursuant to FRCP 12(b), 12(c), 23, 56 or 65(a) shall be accompanied at the time of filing by a proposed order stating the requested relief. This proposed order must also be separately 2 submitted to the Court through the CyberClerk part of the ECF system in WORD or rich text format,”
Discovery
Before filing a disputed discovery motion, a party must seek an informal conference with the court.
“a party shall, before filing a disputed motion for an order relating to discovery, request a conference with the Magistrate Judge”
Conferences
In most adversarial civil actions, parties must hold an initial settlement conference before the answer or other response.
“the parties participate in a settlement conference prior to the filing of an Answer or other response”
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).
How Judge Bell decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In the Gardasil multidistrict litigation, Bell granted summary judgment on implied-preemption grounds because the limited case reports did not constitute newly acquired information showing a causal association that would permit a unilateral warning change.
“Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment Based on Implied Preemption (Doc. No. 188) is GRANTED; and ... This Order shall be applied to Plaintiffs in the MDL other than the Bellwether Plaintiffs in accordance with the prior orders of the Court”
Procedural preferences
In Moseley v. Latino Community Credit Union, Bell converted a dismissal motion into a summary-judgment motion to consider the signed application and account agreement, then denied further amendment as futile.
“the Court will grant Latino's Motion to Dismiss, which has been converted into a Motion for Summary Judgment and deny Moseley's Motion for Summary Judgment.”
Cautions
In the NASCAR antitrust case, Bell denied renewed preliminary-injunction relief on irreparable-harm grounds and declined to address likelihood of success so as not to prejudice the jury pool.
“Plaintiff's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction (Doc. No. 175) is DENIED.”
In Essex Parts Services, Inc. v. AP Racing, Ltd., Bell denied amendment after judgment where the proposed pleading relied on facts known from the start and withdrew an allegation that had undermined the plaintiff’s claim.
“Rule 15 does not permit a litigant to withdraw inconvenient allegations merely because they undermined its claim.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment Based on Implied Preemption (Doc. No. 188) is GRANTED; and ... This Order shall be applied to Plaintiffs in the MDL other than the Bellwether Plaintiffs in accordance with the prior orders of the Court”
“the Court will grant Latino's Motion to Dismiss, which has been converted into a Motion for Summary Judgment and deny Moseley's Motion for Summary Judgment.”
“deny Moseley's Motion for Summary Judgment.”
“Because Moseley, for the reasons set forth above, would be entitled to no relief under any set of facts that could be alleged in support of her claims, the Court concludes that granting leave to amend would be futile.”
“Plaintiff's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction (Doc. No. 175) is DENIED.”
“Counterclaim Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment on NASCAR's Counterclaim (Doc. No. 215) is GRANTED; ... Summary Judgment in favor of the Counterclaim Defendants is entered on NASCAR's Counterclaim”
“Motion for Relief from Default Judgment (Doc. No. 11) is GRANTED”
On initial screening under 28 U.S.C. 1915A of a detainee's Section 1983 complaint alleging denial of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder, the order dismisses the ADA and remaining constitutional claims but allows an official-capacity Fourteenth Amendment due process claim to pass review; grounding: "all claims asserted in this matter are hereby DISMISSED for failure to state a claim."
“Defendant’s Motion to Suppress (Doc. No. 20) is DENIED.”
“Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction (Doc. No. 3) is GRANTED;”
“Motions to Alter Judgment (Doc. No. 35) and to Amend/Correct (Doc. No. 37) are DENIED;”
“Defendant’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (Doc. No. 6) is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part as set forth above;”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 300.5 days (N = 10).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 48.5 days (N = 4).
The sampled civil caseload includes employment and civil-rights actions, Social Security appeals, insurance and contract disputes, consumer-credit claims, and a civil-rights case that proceeded to a jury. Referral magistrates in the reviewed matters include David C. Keesler, David S. Cayer, W. Carleton Metcalf, Susan C. Rodriguez, and, on older matters, Carl Horn III.
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 | 1 |
| 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 | 3 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 1 | 3 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 4 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2023 | 2 | 2 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 2 |
| Mar 2022 | 1 | 2 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 2 |
| Mar 2021 | 1 | 3 |
| Sep 2020 | 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 Western District of North Carolina, not for Judge Bell: 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 | 1,033 | 5.9 months |
| Closed with no court action | 193 | 3 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 586 | 5.1 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 248 | 13.2 months |
| Closed during trial | 6 | not reported |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 1,033 | 5.9 months |
| Sep 2024 | 1,154 | 5.5 months |
| Sep 2023 | 958 | 6.9 months |
| Sep 2022 | 1,210 | 10.1 months |
| Sep 2021 | 951 | 10.3 months |
| Sep 2020 | 873 | 8.5 months |
| Sep 2019 | 816 | 9.1 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).
Draft for Judge Bell with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Bell, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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