Thomas D. Thalken
How Judge Thalken rules, drawn from 7 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Thalken
Thomas D. Thalken served as a United States magistrate judge in the District of Nebraska, based in Omaha. He handled referred pretrial matters and, with the parties’ consent, presided over civil cases through final judgment.
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 Thalken decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In one suppression recommendation, Judge Thalken found probable cause under the totality of the circumstances. The district judge remanded for a supplemental hearing on whether the supporting affidavit had been sworn.
“Judge Thalken concluded that under the totality of the circumstances, using a common sense approach, probable cause existed to issue the search warrant. Judge Thalken concluded that the Confidential Informant ('CI') was reliable, that the omission from the supporting affidavit of the things to be seized or place to be searched was not a material omission, and that the investigator seeking the warrant acted in good faith within the warrant's scope.”
Procedural preferences
In a consent civil case, Judge Thalken granted dismissal without prejudice when the record did not establish federal subject matter jurisdiction.
“The defendants' Motion to Dismiss (Filing No. 8) is granted.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Judge Thalken therefore recommended that the Motion to Suppress (Filing No. 57) be denied.”
Thalken signed a comprehensive 14-paragraph Rule 26(c) protective order with a Written Assurance exhibit in a commercial insurance and banking dispute. It addressed confidentiality designations, access limits, third-party productions, deposition designations, inadvertent-disclosure clawback, return or destruction after 60 days, and the designating party's burden of proving confidentiality if challenged. The entered protective order did not resolve a contested motion and shows Thalken's civil discovery-management work.
“The defendants' Motion to Dismiss (Filing No. 8) is granted.”
“Caterpillar Inc.’s motion to compel (Filing No. 63) is denied.”
“The plaintiff’s motion to compel (Filing No. 69) is denied, as moot.”
“The Defendant’s motion to suppress (Filing No. 29) is granted.”
“Hill’s motion to compel (Filing No. 36) is granted.”
“Hill’s motion for a continuance of trial (Filing No. 36) is granted as to both”
“The Motion to Dismiss Criminal Case (Filing No. 14) filed by Defendant, Pretiss Charles Reddick, Jr., is denied.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 383 days (N = 13).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 46 days (N = 5).
- Judge Thalken sat in Omaha and carried a criminal-duty docket (initial appearances, detention, search-warrant and suppression matters) alongside civil pretrial management.
- A substantial share of his civil work came by the parties' consent under 28 U.S.C. 636(c), under which he presided over employment, ERISA, civil-rights, Federal Employers' Liability Act, product-liability, and commercial-contract cases through final judgment, jury trial, or bench trial. Durations below are filed-to-terminated for the 13 consent civil cases grounded in the motion timeline.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, not for Judge Thalken: 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 | 734 | 5.4 months |
| Closed with no court action | 210 | 3 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 506 | 6.9 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 13 | 27.1 months |
| Closed during trial | 5 | not reported |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 734 | 5.4 months |
| Sep 2024 | 522 | 7.8 months |
| Sep 2023 | 467 | 7 months |
| Sep 2022 | 667 | 5.2 months |
| Sep 2021 | 588 | 6.8 months |
| Sep 2020 | 508 | 8 months |
| Sep 2019 | 492 | 8.6 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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