Talesha L. Saint-Marc
How Judge Saint-Marc rules, drawn from 26 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Saint-Marc
Talesha L. Saint-Marc became a United States magistrate judge in the District of New Hampshire in June 2023. She previously practiced labor and employment law in Manchester and earned her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law.
Judge Saint-Marc's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Saint-Marc'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).
How Judge Saint-Marc decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In League of Women Voters of New Hampshire v. Kramer, Saint-Marc found the League had not shown that the defendants' actions interfered with its core mission, so it lacked the organizational injury needed for standing.
“Because the League failed to show that defendants’ actions interfered with its core mission, it has not demonstrated that it suffered the type of injury necessary to confer standing.”
In Gigliotti v. Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility, Saint-Marc found a genuine factual dispute over whether the prison's lack of response prevented the inmate from exhausting administrative remedies. She denied summary judgment on the exhaustion defense.
“if Gigliotti is correct and taking inferences in his favor, he was unable to exhaust administrative remedies due to a lack of response ... a genuine issue of material fact exists on the question of administrative exhaustion, which should preclude summary judgment on that defense.”
Procedural preferences
In Wells v. Merrill Lynch, Saint-Marc recommended dismissing the challenge to an arbitration award because Wells had not served a filed motion to vacate within the Federal Arbitration Act's three-month period. His first motion was filed after the period expired.
“Wells had to serve defendants with a filed motion to vacate by March 28, 2024. He did not. Indeed, he could not because his initial Motion to Vacate ... was filed in this court on April 1, 2024, after the limitations period already expired.”
In Gagne v. Barrington Police Department, Saint-Marc recommended allowing a prisoner to amend his complaint to name four officers after the ordinary limitations period had run. She found equitable tolling warranted because he identified them within the period set by the court’s earlier order and had not lacked diligence.
“This is not a case where Mr. Gagne lacked diligence in pursuing his claims against the John Doe defendants.”
In Cornerstone Capital Strategies v. White Mountain Organic Growers' Association, Saint-Marc found the federal case closed after remand and recommended denying later motions concerning state-court proceedings for lack of jurisdiction. The district judge adopted that recommendation.
“the case in this court is closed, and this court lacks jurisdiction to consider Defendants’ motions. Therefore, Defendants’ motions must be denied.”
Cautions
In Schwartzenhauer v. Hillsborough County, Saint-Marc recommended denying class certification without prejudice at preliminary review. She found the self-represented plaintiffs could not adequately represent the hundreds of people in the proposed jail conditions class.
“Those pro se plaintiffs cannot adequately represent the interests of the hundreds of men and women in the class they have identified.”
In Therriault v. Northern N.H. Correctional Facility, Saint-Marc recommended denying a prisoner’s request for a transfer as moot because prison officials had already moved him to another facility. She left open a renewed request if circumstances changed.
“A prisoner’s request for injunctive relief in a prison conditions case is generally rendered moot by his transfer.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the government’s motion to reconsider is granted, and the August 22 report and recommendation is withdrawn.”
“It is recommended that the district judge grant the United States’s motion for default judgment (doc. no. 47) and enter judgment against New Residential.”
“the district judge should deny the request for class certification in the complaint (Doc. No. 1) without prejudice.”
“the district judge should deny their motion to proceed in forma pauperis (Doc. No. 2), without prejudice to the ability of each plaintiff to file a complete application to proceed without prepayment of fees or costs.”
“Huntington’s motion for default judgment should be granted, and it is recommended that the district judge enter judgment against defendants Outdoor Performance LLC and David Martin Dyer.”
“the district judge should deny defendants’ motion for summary judgment (doc. no. 42).”
“the district judge should thus deny plaintiff’s requests for a court-ordered transfer, without prejudice to his ability to file a new motion for preliminary injunctive relief in this matter, if he can establish the prerequisites for such relief.”
“the district judge should deny plaintiffs’ amended motion for a preliminary injunction.”
“the court recommends that the district judge grant Mr. Gagne’s motion to amend.”
“this court recommends that the district judge grant defendants’ Motions to Dismiss (Doc. No. 7 and 13).”
“if the district judge adopts the recommendation to dismiss the litigation, the district judge should deny defendants’ Motion to Strike (Doc. No. 13) as moot.”
“this court recommends that the district judge deny Respondent’s motion for summary judgment (Doc. No. 6) without prejudice.”
“the district judge should grant the Respondent’s Motion to Dismiss for Mootness.”
“the district judge should grant the Respondent’s Motion to Dismiss for Mootness and deny the Respondent’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 5) as moot.”
Preliminary review of an elderly prisoner's suit over a beating by other inmates after prison staff moved his housing unit into contact with a more violent unit during a COVID-19 quarantine. She recommended dismissing the federal damages claim and the state-law claims to the extent brought against officials in their official capacities, on sovereign-immunity grounds, while allowing the individual-capacity Eighth Amendment failure-to-protect claim and related negligence and emotional-distress claims to proceed to service.
A repeat pro se litigant sought records from the Social Security Administration under the Privacy Act after being given two chances to show he had exhausted the agency's own request process. She recommended dismissal because he still had not documented any specific request or response, and his claim that the agency's silence made exhaustion impossible was circular rather than a showing of futility.
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Her enumerated docket mixes a high volume of magistrate-only administrative matters (search-warrant applications, subpoenas to technology and telecom providers for user records, petty-offense citations from federal land) with a smaller, growing set of civil cases where the parties consented to her jurisdiction for all purposes under 28 U.S.C. 636(c), plus referrals from the district judges for reports and recommendations, including roughly one in eight of the district's Social Security appeals under the court's standing referral order.
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 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2023 | 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 New Hampshire, not for Judge Saint-Marc: 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 | 672 | 33 months |
| Closed with no court action | 89 | 3.2 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 506 | 41.6 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 74 | 15.6 months |
| Closed during trial | 3 | not reported |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 672 | 33 months |
| Sep 2024 | 2,499 | 49.7 months |
| Sep 2023 | 529 | 23.5 months |
| Sep 2022 | 313 | 10.4 months |
| Sep 2021 | 318 | 10.8 months |
| Sep 2020 | 335 | 8.1 months |
| Sep 2019 | 418 | 10.2 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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