James Orenstein
How Judge Orenstein rules, drawn from 6 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Orenstein no longer sits on this court. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Orenstein
James Orenstein served as a U.S. magistrate judge in Brooklyn from 2004 until his retirement in 2020. His work included decisions on electronic surveillance and access to digital evidence, including a 2016 ruling concerning an iPhone and the All Writs Act.
How Judge Orenstein decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Super Express USA Publishing v. Spring Publishing, Orenstein recommended the $750 statutory minimum per infringed article despite estimating a lower licensing value, because the statute set that floor and the record gave no reason to exceed it.
“However, statutory damages must be at least $750 per infringement.”
Procedural preferences
In FDIC v. Hodge, Orenstein recommended deferring the damages determination against a defaulting defendant until claims against the answering defendants were resolved.
“I recommend that a determination of damages be deferred until after the FDIC's claims against the answering defendants have been resolved.”
In Khabbaz v. Costco, Orenstein reduced the requested settlement attorney fee after reconstructed billing records failed to identify which attorney performed the work and included excessive hours.
“First, the reconstructed billing records do not sufficiently identify the attorney who performed the work.”
Cautions
In Plastik v. Westbury Music Fair, Orenstein recommended compensating only three hours of counsel’s work at $100 per hour in a copyright default, finding time billed for repeat filing tasks excessive.
“Liebowitz's attempt to bill so much time for those tasks is excessive.”
In Hong v. 7 Express Restaurant, the district judge upheld Orenstein’s decision to exclude exhibits filed after his damages-evidence deadline and credited his assessment that testimony about unpaid wages was speculative or hearsay.
“Judge Orenstein was well within his authority to decline to consider plaintiffs’ untimely filed exhibits.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“I grant the motion conditioned on the parties' agreement to accept a reduction in the portion of the settlement amount to be set aside as to attorneys' fees and costs. Specifically, I will approve the proposed settlement if the parties agree to reduce the amount of attorneys' fees from $19,819.00 to $17,106.25.”
“the Albanis' motion for summary judgment is denied, as is Maffucci's; Bekins' motion for summary judgment is granted.”
“Bekins' motion for summary judgment is granted.”
“I respectfully recommend that the court enter a default judgment against defendant George Alderdice on Counts 5 and 7 of the Complaint, and dismiss Count 16 against defendant Alderdice sua sponte. I further recommend that the court defer a determination of damages until after the plaintiff's claims against the answering defendants have been resolved.”
“I respectfully recommend that the court grant a default judgment against Spring on the plaintiffs' copyright claim, enter judgment against both defendants jointly and severally in the total amount of $155,250 (reflecting the minimum statutory award of $750 for each of the 207 infringing articles as to which the plaintiffs have sufficiently demonstrated their ownership), dismiss all of the plaintiffs' remaining claims, and close this case.”
“The R&R recommends that default judgments be entered against all defendants as to plaintiffs’ first, second, third, fourth, fifth, eighth, and ninth causes of action, and that the court dismiss plaintiffs’ sixth, seventh, tenth, and eleventh causes of action. ... the court affirms and adopts the R&R’s determination of liability.”
“I respectfully recommend that the court grant the motion for default judgment and award the plaintiff a total of $1,490 (consisting of $750 in statutory damages, $300 in attorney's fees, and $440 in costs).”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- His as-assigned sample is dominated by exactly the surveillance and electronic-evidence docket he is nationally known for: cell-phone search-warrant applications, stored-communications orders, and pen-register and trap-and-trace applications (all miscellaneous filings dated 2016).
- This grounds his surveillance-law profile in the docket but yields no civil motion-outcome or latency data; obtaining groundable motion timelines for this judge would require pulling specific older terminated civil dockets located through the referring district judge.
Pending matters in the official report
Judge Orenstein was last listed in the Civil Justice Reform Act report as of September 30, 2020.
| 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 |
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 Orenstein 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.