Clay H. Kaminsky
How Judge Kaminsky rules, drawn from 11 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Kaminsky
Clay H. Kaminsky became a U.S. magistrate judge for the Eastern District of New York in July 2025. Before joining the bench, he worked as a trial attorney with the Federal Defenders of New York and clerked for a district judge and a circuit judge. He earned degrees from Harvard College and New York University School of Law.
Judge Kaminsky's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Kaminsky, 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
Do not submit courtesy copies unless the Court requests them.
“No courtesy copies should be submitted absent a request by the Court.”
Conferences
File adjournment, extension, and conference change requests as ECF letter motions at least three business days in advance absent an emergency.
“Requests for adjournments, extensions, and changes to conferences (such as a request to appear by telephone) must be made by letter motion filed on ECF as a ‘Motion,’ not as a ‘Letter’ or ‘Status Report,’ at least three (3) business days prior to the conference 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 Kaminsky decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
Before recommending dismissal for failure to prosecute, Kaminsky considered notice, prejudice from delay, docket management, the opportunity to be heard, and whether lesser measures had already failed.
“the undersigned has considered and attempted remedies less drastic than dismissal over the past several months, but those less drastic measures have failed to spur Plaintiff to adequately prosecute this case.”
He applied strict scrutiny to a counsel-disqualification request and treated unresolved trial-witness concerns as premature where discovery and a pending dispositive motion could change the need for testimony.
“At this stage, Plaintiffs have not met their burden of establishing that Mr. Stumer’s testimony is necessary or prejudicial.”
In the Clorox default case, Kaminsky distinguished claims the plaintiff pursued from claims it abandoned and recommended relief only on the pursued claims. The district judge adopted the report.
“(2) deny default judgment on Plaintiff’s abandoned New York common law dilution and unjust enrichment and New York General Business Law Section 360-L claims;”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Accordingly, because Plaintiff has failed to prosecute this case and to comply with a Court order, I respectfully recommend that this action be dismissed pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(b).”
“For the foregoing reasons, I recommend that Defendant’s motion for sanctions be DENIED.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs’ motion to disqualify Mr. Stumer is denied without prejudice.”
“Plaintiff’s application to proceed in forma pauperis under 28 U.S.C. § 1915 (ECF Dkt. No. 2) is hereby granted.”
Kaminsky directed two nonparty medical providers to produce requested documents by a date certain and required any noncompliant respondent to appear at a status conference. The order states: ‘Respondents CityMD Bergen Beach Urgent Care and Century Medical and Dental Center are each directed to produce the requested documents to Defendants’ counsel no later than June 5, 2026.’ The order did not identify the underlying motion, so it is retained as a signed discovery order but excluded from outcome statistics.
“Plaintiff’s application to proceed in forma pauperis under 28 U.S.C. § 1915 is hereby granted.”
“Having also balanced the factors set forth in Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., 542 U.S. 241, 264–65 (2004), the Court grants Hao’s petition.”
“Accordingly, the motion for reconsideration is denied.”
“For the reasons that follow, I recommend that the Motion be denied.”
“I respectfully recommend granting Travelers’ motion for summary judgment and denying Scottsdale’s motion for summary judgment.”
“(1) grant default judgment on Plaintiff’s federal, New York common law infringement and unfair competition, and New York General Business Law Sections 349 and 350 claims; (2) deny default judgment on Plaintiff’s abandoned New York common law dilution and unjust enrichment and New York General Business Law Section 360-L claims;”
“(3) grant Plaintiff’s request for a permanent injunction;”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The sample included wage-and-hour, insurance, Social Security, immigration, employment, copyright, trademark, and criminal-duty matters. Eleven of twelve cases remained pending in the available case metadata. The sole terminated matter lasted 178 days, which is too little evidence for a duration characterization.
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 | 0 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 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 Eastern District of New York, not for Judge Kaminsky: 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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Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Kaminsky, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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