James R. Cho
How Judge Cho rules, drawn from 15 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Cho
James R. Cho became a United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York in 2021. He earned degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota Law School and sits in Brooklyn.
Judge Cho's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Cho, 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
Discovery
Submit an unresolved discovery dispute in one jointly composed letter.
“In the event the parties are unable to resolve a discovery dispute, the parties must write to the Court and describe their dispute in a single letter, jointly composed.”
Conferences
File an adjournment or extension request on ECF as a motion, not a letter.
“A request for adjournment or for extension of time must be filed on ECF as a ‘Motion’ and not as a ‘Letter.’”
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 Cho decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Murphy v. Murphy, he recommended rejecting a copyright limitations defense at the pleading stage because the alleged time bar was not clear on the face of the complaint.
“the alleged grounds for Defendant's statute of limitations defense do not appear unambiguously on the face of Plaintiff's complaint”
In Benbow v. City of New York, Cho recommended allowing the false-arrest claim and excessive-force claims against the two officers who fired shots to proceed while recommending summary judgment on other claims and for other officers.
“denying defendants’ motion with regard to plaintiff’s excessive force claims against defendants Feeley and Rosiello, but granting the motion as to the claims against defendants Anderson, Sergeant Diab, Minucci, and Mitchell”
In JGIAP RH 160 LLC v. CRI Holding Corp., Cho recommended dismissing the federal RICO claims and declining supplemental jurisdiction over the state claims; the district judge adopted those recommendations.
“decline supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“The Manda Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 99, the Morali Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 102, and the CRI Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 106, are GRANTED. Plaintiff's Complaint, ECF No. 1, is DISMISSED without leave to amend. Dismissal is with prejudice with respect to the RICO claims and without prejudice with respect to the state law claims.”
“The Manda Defendants' Motion for Sanctions, ECF No. 113, and the Rule 11 Respondents' request for an award of attorneys' fees and expenses, see ECF No. 116, are DENIED.”
“The Court adopts in full Judge Cho's R&R, see ECF No. 32, and denies Defendant's motion to dismiss Plaintiff's copyright claims as barred by the statute of limitations.”
“For the reasons stated above, this Court respectfully recommends granting in part and denying in part defendants' motion for summary judgment, as follows: (1) granting defendants' motion with regard to plaintiff's Monell claims against the City in its entirety; (2) denying defendants' motion with regard to plaintiff's false arrest claims; (3) denying defendants' motion with regard to plaintiff's excessive force claims against defendants Feeley and Rosiello, but granting the motion as to the claims against defendants Anderson, Sergeant Diab, Minucci, and Mitchell”
“Magistrate Judge James R. Cho issued a Report and Recommendation ... recommending that Plaintiffs' motion for a default judgment be granted as to Defendant-Borrowers Salma Ahmed ('Ahmed') and Shah Alam ('Alam') and denied as to the City Defendants ... the Court adopts the R&R without de novo review and directs the Clerk to enter judgment in accordance with the R&R.”
“The Court adopts the report and recommendation in its entirety. The plaintiff's motion for default judgment is granted and the Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to enter the attached order and final default judgment.”
“this Court denies without prejudice defendant’s motion for summary judgment and denies without prejudice plaintiff’s motion, with leave to re-file in accordance with the Court’s Local Rules.”
“this Court respectfully recommends granting plaintiff's motion for default judgment as set forth below ... order the foreclosure and sale of 1134 Central Avenue, South Hempstead, New York 11550 ... award plaintiff the account balance sought of $442,667.01 from the proceeds of the sale, plus prejudgment interest”
“the Court finds that the default judgment is void as to defendant Muthana because service was improper. Accordingly, the Court respectfully recommends vacating the entry of default and default judgment against defendant Muthana.”
“Because the Court finds that all three factors weigh in favor of setting aside the entries of default and default judgment, the Court recommends that the District Court grant Gharama's motion to vacate.”
“the Court respectfully recommends granting American Empire's motion for a default judgment and awarding plaintiff American Empire $101,102 on its breach of contract claim.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court denies Brandes' motion to compel production of Madden's litigation hold notices.”
“For the foregoing reasons, this Court respectfully recommends granting plaintiff’s motion”
“this Court grants Plaintiff’s motion for leave to take discovery prior to holding a Rule 26(f) conference”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 294 days (N = 7).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 16.5 days (N = 16).
Two windows. (1) His currently-referred civil docket (a 20-case sample) is broad, consistent with his ex-prosecutor Civil-Division background: fraud / truth-in-lending, RICO, civil rights (jobs/ADA/other), Social Security, contract, and immigration/habeas/FOIA, alongside a steady magistrate-duty criminal calendar (warrants, complaints, grand-jury subpoenas). (2) His magistrate consent docket is where most of the motion record lives: wage-and-hour collective and class actions that consented to him for all proceedings, which run a median of about 294 days from filing to closure (range 60-881 days) and nearly all end in a court-approved settlement after mediation, plus a smaller set of consent Social Security disability appeals he decides on cross-motions for judgment on the pleadings.
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 | 10 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 10 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 8 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 8 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 3 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 3 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 3 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 3 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 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 Cho: 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).
Draft for Judge Cho with the record in hand
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