Margo K. Brodie
How Judge Brodie rules, drawn from 28 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Brodie
Margo Kitsy Brodie is a judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Appointed by President Barack Obama, Judge Brodie received a commission on February 29, 2012.
Judge Brodie's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Brodie, 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
Send courtesy copies to chambers only on request.
“Courtesy copies shall be sent to Chambers on request only.”
Conferences
Request an adjournment or extension at least 48 hours before the deadline or appearance absent an emergency.
“Absent an emergency, all requests for adjournment or enlargement of time shall be made at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled deadline or appearance.”
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 Brodie decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In a foreclosure case, she vacated a judgment under Rule 60(b) after the lender and homeowner reached a post-judgment loan modification, finding that the settlement and the public interest in keeping homeowners in their homes outweighed finality concerns.
“A balancing of the parties' settlement agreement against the public interest in the finality of judgments favors vacating the Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale. ... there is an important public interest in allowing homeowners to remain in their home.”
In a summary-judgment ruling, she excluded the defendants’ unsworn expert report under Rule 56 and denied their motion because the report could not supply admissible support.
“Courts in this Circuit have uniformly held that unsworn expert reports do not satisfy the admissibility requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e) ... The exclusion of Defendants' expert report commands the Court to deny Defendants' motion for summary judgment.”
Procedural preferences
After the federal claims fell out of this case, she declined supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims, finding that judicial economy, convenience, fairness, and comity favored dismissal without prejudice.
“The considerations of judicial economy, convenience, fairness and comity all weigh in favor of the Court declining to exercise supplement jurisdiction over the state law claims and dismissing the litigation without prejudice.”
In a default-judgment case, she adopted the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and denied the plaintiff’s motion without prejudice.
“the Court adopts the R&R and denies without prejudice Plaintiff's motion for a default judgment.”
In this case, she reviewed an unopposed magistrate judge’s report and recommendation for clear error and adopted it in full.
“The Court has reviewed the unopposed R&R and, finding no clear error, the Court adopts ... the R&R in its entirety pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 636(b)(1).”
Cautions
In a request to stay proceedings pending mandamus, she applied the requirement that the movant show the Second Circuit was likely to grant the writ and denied the stay because the movant had not shown likely success or irreparable harm.
“The movant must show not just a likelihood of success on the merits, but that the Second Circuit is likely to grant mandamus. ... Because Monbo has not shown that she is likely to succeed on the merits or that irreparable harm is likely to result from the denial of a stay ... the Court denies a stay.”
In a visa-denial suit, she held that the consular officer had given a facially legitimate and bona fide statutory reason for the denial and needed no further explanation.
“The consular officer provided a 'facially legitimate and bona fide reason' for denying Mr. Coulibaly's visa by citing to 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(C)(i) and was not required to offer additional explanation for the denial.”
In a case with multiple plaintiffs, she dismissed only an inactive plaintiff’s claims with prejudice after eight months without participation, a missed conference, and loss of contact with counsel. She found lesser sanctions ineffective because that plaintiff had stopped prosecuting the case.
“lesser sanctions would not be effective because Plaintiff I.E. has failed to prosecute this case for eight months.”
In Coombs v. KA Investigations-Security, Brodie granted default judgment on overtime and spread-of-hours pay but denied minimum-wage and wage-notice relief after examining the wage evidence and the alleged injury from missing notices.
“denies Plaintiffs’ motion for minimum wage and Wage Theft”
In the Temu fee dispute, she reduced the requested fees by 40% after identifying excessive hours, attorney rates for paralegal work, block billing, and clerical entries. She awarded the documented court and research costs in full.
“In total, the billing practices of billing for excessive hours, billing at attorney rates for paralegal tasks, block billing, and billing for clerical tasks warrant a reduction of hours. In lieu of reviewing and deducting for each entry of non-compensable administrative work and excessive, redundant, or otherwise unnecessary hours, the Court reduces the total attorneys’ fees across-the-board by 40%.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Defendants' motion for summary judgment is granted, and the Court dismisses Plaintiffs' state law claims without prejudice.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court denies Defendants' motion for summary judgment.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiff's remaining state law claims and dismisses those claims without prejudice.”
“Although the Court has issued a decision on a motion to dismiss, Plaintiff's partial motion for summary judgment is pending and, even if Plaintiff succeeds on that motion for summary judgment, the case will nevertheless proceed to trial on his infliction of emotional distress claim.”
“The Court denies Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment, Toppin's motion for summary judgment, and Sapphire and Simos' motion for summary judgment.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to all claims.”
“the Court denies Dorfman's motion to stay and Plaintiff's Motion for Default Judgment against the Individual Defendants without prejudice, and grants Plaintiff leave to file an amended complaint.”
“the Court grants Defendant's motion for reconsideration and, on reconsideration, the Court dismisses without prejudice Plaintiff's failure to promote claim.”
“having reviewed the appeal de novo, the Court determines that Judge Levy did not err in granting Plaintiff's request to reopen discovery.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants Defendants' motion to dismiss the Complaint.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court adopts the R&R and denies without prejudice Plaintiff's motion for a default judgment.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court denies Monbo's motion to stay proceedings while her petition for a writ of mandamus is pending before the Second Circuit.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants Plaintiff's motion and vacates the Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered on August 16, 2018. The Referee is discharged and relieved of any and all obligations and requirements thereunder.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 361 days (N = 10).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 250 days (N = 5).
- Chief Judge Brodie is an active district judge in Brooklyn who combines court-administration duties with a substantial docket.
- Her assignments include many criminal cases and administrative matters such as wiretap applications, foreign-treaty requests, civil forfeitures, and applications to suspend limitation periods.
- Those matters often close within days and do not represent the pace of contested civil litigation.
- Her contested civil cases include ADA access, consumer credit, ERISA, securities, immigration mandamus, False Claims Act, mortgage foreclosure, employment, and intellectual-property disputes.
- She also presides over the In re Payment Card Interchange Fee multidistrict litigation.
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 | 2 |
| 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 | 24 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 2 | 24 |
| Sep 2025 | 1 | 30 |
| Mar 2025 | 3 | 32 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 43 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 48 |
| Sep 2023 | 4 | 56 |
| Mar 2023 | 7 | 66 |
| Sep 2022 | 7 | 74 |
| Mar 2022 | 14 | 70 |
| Sep 2021 | 8 | 67 |
| Mar 2021 | 3 | 60 |
| Sep 2020 | 18 | 65 |
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 Brodie: 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 Brodie with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Brodie, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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