Arlene R. Lindsay
How Judge Lindsay rules, drawn from 17 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Lindsay
Arlene R. Lindsay has served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York since January 1994. Before joining the bench, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney and led the office’s Long Island Division.
Judge Lindsay's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Lindsay, as published on the court's website (checked October 8, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
Key rules
Filing
Provide courtesy copies of motions decided by Judge Lindsay when the motion, opposition, and reply are filed.
“Courtesy copies of all motion papers to be decided by Magistrate Judge Lindsay shall be provided to the Court upon filing of the motion, opposition, and reply briefs.”
Conferences
Request adjournments and extensions at least 48 hours before the appearance or deadline absent an emergency.
“All requests for adjournments or extensions of time shall be made at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled appearance or deadline, absent an emergency.”
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 10, 2026).
How Judge Lindsay decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
In Sidik v. Royal Sovereign International, Inc., she recommended denying default judgment with leave to renew until the rights and liabilities of the nondefaulting defendants were determined.
“Judge Lindsay recommended that the Court deny the Plaintiffs’ motion for default judgment with leave to renew, after a determination of the rights and liabilities of [the non-defaulting defendants].”
Cautions
In Gesualdi v. Deland Contracting, Inc., she recommended an itemized $307,977.91 award of unpaid ERISA contributions, interest, liquidated damages, fees, and costs after default; District Judge Hurley adopted the recommendation without objection.
“plaintiffs’ request for damages, costs, and fees is granted. The Court hereby directs that plaintiffs recover damages from defendant in the amount of $307,977.91”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the 2014 Report and Recommendation is adopted as if set forth herein, and plaintiffs’ request for damages, costs, and fees is granted. The Court hereby directs that plaintiffs recover damages from defendant in the amount of $307,977.91”
“Judge Lindsay’s R&R (Docket Entry 21) is ADOPTED in its entirety and Plaintiffs’ motion for a default judgment (Docket Entry 10) is GRANTED.”
“Judge Lindsay recommended that the Court deny the Plaintiffs’ motion for default judgment with leave to renew, after a determination of the rights and liabilities of Royal Sovereign International, Inc., Royal Centurian Inc., and BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc.. ... Accordingly, the R&R is adopted in its entirety.”
“the plaintiff’s motion to amend the complaint is denied insofar as it seeks to add the third cause of action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and granted to the extent that plaintiff is permitted to amend the complaint to add paragraphs 9, 91, and 94.”
“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiff’s motion to strike is denied in its entirety.”
“Accordingly, the Court grants Long Beach's motion to dismiss without prejudice. Booker may amend her complaint as against Long Beach within thirty days of this Order but only if she is able to address the deficiencies outlined in this decision.”
“Because there is no dispute that written notice of the defect allegedly responsible for Plaintiff's injury was not provided to the TOOB, and there is no proof offered that the TOOB created the defect through an affirmative act of negligence, or the defect resulted from a special use of the property by the TOOB, the TOOB's motion for summary judgment is granted.”
“Accordingly, the undersigned recommends that the instant motion be denied with leave to renew along with proof that all documents in support of the request for default judgment, including the Clerk’s Certificate of Default and any papers required by the rule, have been personally served on, or mailed to the last known business address of Lyter.”
“Accordingly, to the extent the plaintiff is seeking information regarding class-wide damages, the motion is denied, with leave to renew once the motion for class certification is decided.”
“The motion for contempt, sanctions and costs is denied. Plaintiff’s motion is granted to the extent it seeks to conduct the depositions by a date certain.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is denied and the defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted.”
“Before the court is the defendant’s motion to compel the plaintiff to produce expert reports from his treating physicians and the plaintiff’s opposition to the motion. For the reasons that are set forth below, the motion is denied in part and granted in part.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- An Eastern District of New York referral magistrate in Central Islip on Long Island.
- A sample of her currently assigned (pending) dockets shows a Long Island civil referral mix: mortgage foreclosure and commercial contract, product-liability tort, FLSA labor, civil-rights employment and ADA, truth-in-lending, immigration, and criminal duty-magistrate matters.
- Consistent with the sampled recommendations, her substantive referral work runs heavily to default-judgment and benefit-fund cases alongside general Long Island civil matters.
- This is a current-snapshot composition, not a full-tenure caseload.
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 | 3 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 3 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 3 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 4 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 5 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 8 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 11 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 8 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 8 |
| Mar 2022 | 2 | 9 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 4 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 4 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 3 |
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 U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, not for Judge Lindsay: 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 | 7,392 | 6.7 months |
| Closed with no court action | 1,485 | 3 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 5,022 | 6.9 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 835 | 13.9 months |
| Closed during trial | 50 | 49.6 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 7,392 | 6.7 months |
| Sep 2024 | 7,879 | 5.8 months |
| Sep 2023 | 7,746 | 5.1 months |
| Sep 2022 | 7,588 | 6.2 months |
| Sep 2021 | 6,709 | 7.9 months |
| Sep 2020 | 6,062 | 8.6 months |
| Sep 2019 | 6,858 | 8.1 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).
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