Noel Lawrence Hillman
How Judge Hillman rules, drawn from 3 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Hillman no longer sits on this court. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Hillman
Noel Lawrence Hillman was a judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Judge Hillman received a commission on June 12, 2006. Judge Hillman assumed senior status on April 4, 2022 and retired on February 29, 2024.
How Judge Hillman decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On the recurring NJ Charitable Immunities Act question for federally qualified health centers, reads 'organized exclusively for hospital purposes' broadly (per Kuchera) so the $250,000 damages cap, not absolute immunity, governs an FTCA malpractice claim, and expressly aligns with sibling D.N.J. judges who reached the same result on the same FQHC.
“The Court holds that these medical and health-related pursuits support a conclusion that CAMcare is organized exclusively for hospital purposes under the NJCIA. ... the Court holds that the NJCIA damages cap applies.”
Procedural preferences
In first-party insurance suits, follows the prevailing NJ state-and-federal practice of severing and staying bad-faith (and Consumer Fraud Act) claims from the underlying coverage/UIM contract claim, to spare the insurer premature production of its claim file and avoid prejudice: using Rule 42(b) bifurcation (one action, two phases), not Rule 21 severance (which would create two separate actions).
“The Court concludes that the interests of judicial economy, as well as the avoidance of prejudice to Geico, weigh in favor of severing Counts 2 and 3 ... from Count 1.”
Cautions
Reconsideration is confined to the three traditional grounds (intervening change in controlling law, newly available evidence, or clear error/manifest injustice) and may not be used to relitigate decided matters or raise arguments that could have been made earlier; mere disagreement does not suffice.
“A motion for reconsideration may not be used to re-litigate old matters or argue new matters that could have been raised before the original decision was reached ... mere disagreement with the Court will not suffice”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the jurisdictional motion will be denied; and the Rule 12(b)(6) motion will be denied as to Count 2 (bad faith), and granted as to Count 3 (the New Jersey statutory consumer fraud claim). However, Abiona will be given an opportunity to attempt to cure the pleading deficiencies of Count 3.”
“Geico's Motion to Stay and Sever Counts 2 and 3 pending resolution of Count 1 will be granted.”
“the United States' motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction will be denied”
“the motion for partial summary judgment will be granted.”
“For the reasons stated above, the Court will deny the Motion for Reconsideration.”
Pending matters in the official report
Judge Hillman was last listed in the Civil Justice Reform Act report as of September 30, 2023.
| Motions pending more than six months | 3 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 1 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 27 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2023 | 3 | 27 |
| Mar 2023 | 12 | 19 |
| Sep 2022 | 27 | 29 |
| Mar 2022 | 8 | 26 |
| Sep 2021 | 3 | 34 |
| Mar 2021 | 6 | 35 |
| Sep 2020 | 6 | 19 |
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.
A historical record
Judge Hillman no longer sits on this court. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled here. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.