James R. Cho
How Judge Cho decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On a statute-of-limitations defense raised at the pleading stage he applies the Second Circuit rule strictly: a Rule 12(b)(6) SOL dismissal is available only if the time-bar is apparent on the face of the complaint, and under the copyright discovery rule the claim does not accrue until the holder discovered (or with diligence should have) the infringement. If accrual is not pleaded, he will not dismiss -- the defense is preserved for summary judgment.
“the alleged grounds for Defendant's statute of limitations defense do not appear unambiguously on the face of Plaintiff's complaint”
On Section 1983 / police-misconduct summary judgment he resolves the motion claim-by-claim and officer-by-officer rather than wholesale, distinguishing the officers who used force from those who did not, and dismissing Monell claims that lack a policy/custom showing while letting the individual false-arrest and excessive-force claims against the directly-involved officers proceed to trial.
“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”
On supplemental jurisdiction he follows the default rule: once the federal anchor (here RICO) is dismissed, he declines to retain the state-law claims, dismissing them without prejudice to refiling in state court.
“grant the motions to dismiss Plaintiff's RICO claims against all Defendants, decline supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims, and dismiss Plaintiff's Complaint 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.
| Summary judgment N = 3 |
Granted in part: 1Denied: 2 | counts only |
| Default judgment N = 3 |
Granted: 2Granted in part: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to dismiss N = 2 |
Granted: 1Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for sanctions 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.
“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 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”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
As-assigned referral civil docket (2026 sample, N=20) is broad and consistent with his ex-AUSA Civil-Division background: fraud / truth-in-lending (NOS 370, several), RICO (470), civil rights -- jobs/ADA/other (442/446/440), Social Security, contract (190), and immigration/habeas/FOIA (530/895), alongside a steady magistrate-duty criminal calendar (1:NN-mj-* warrants/complaints and 1:NN-mc-* search-warrant / grand-jury matters). Less FLSA-concentrated than some EDNY magistrates.