Karen Ballard Molzen
How Judge Molzen decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
Liberally construes pro se pleadings but will not construct arguments or search the record for the litigant; on the IFP/screening referral docket she recommends dismissal WITHOUT prejudice where the threshold defect is jurisdictional or curable (no subject-matter jurisdiction, no state actor, failure to serve), and denies IFP where the Adkins poverty showing is not met.
“Maloy has failed to show that he cannot, because of poverty, provide himself with the necessities of life and pay the filing fee. ... his sparse allegations do not invoke the subject-matter jurisdiction of the court ... and border on being delusional.”
Uses the Order to Show Cause and Rule 4(m) to clear stalled pro se cases: where a plaintiff ignores an OSC on defective service, recommends sua sponte dismissal without prejudice rather than ruling the merits of a pending motion.
“the Chief Magistrate Judge entered an Order to Show Cause ... Cowgill did not respond, and ... Chief Magistrate Judge Molzen sua sponte proposed that the Court dismiss the case without prejudice”
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.
| Bankruptcy appeal N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Screening dismissal N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Failure to prosecute dismissal N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Construed motion N = 1 |
Denied: 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.
“Magistrate Judge Karen B. Molzen filed her PF&RD on March 9, 2018, in which she recommended that the Order Dismissing Bankruptcy Case be affirmed and this bankruptcy appeal dismissed. ... the bankruptcy appeal is DISMISSED with prejudice”
“the Honorable Karen B. Molzen, Chief United States Magistrate Judge, recommends that the Court deny the pro-se Plaintiff's Application to Proceed ... without Prepaying Fees or Costs ... and dismiss without prejudice his Civil Rights Complaint Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983 ... the Plaintiff's Civil Rights Complaint ... is dismissed without prejudice.”
“Chief Magistrate Judge Molzen sua sponte proposed that the Court dismiss the case without prejudice because of Cowgill's apparent lack of interest in properly litigating this matter. ... this case is dismissed without prejudice”
“the Honorable Karen B. Molzen ... recommended that the Court deny the relief requested in the Defendant's Letter[s] to the Honorable James O. Browning ... without prejudice, and open a new civil case pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983 ... the relief requested ... is denied without prejudice; and ... the Clerk of the Court is directed to open a new civil case pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 347 days (N = 10).
Three-part docket: (1) a heavy Albuquerque criminal/immigration DUTY docket (search/arrest warrants, criminal complaints, initial appearances) -- dominates the recent docket assigned_judge stream; (2) consent judge of record by 28 U.S.C. 636(c) on Social Security disability appeals (SSID Tit. XVI / DIWC; 42:405(g)) -- a steady civil spine, esp. 2001-2003 era; (3) referral magistrate on bankruptcy-appeal / prisoner / non-prisoner-pro-se / immigration-habeas dockets (the reasoning layer). NOT a grant rate -- role/composition only.