Peggy Cross-Goldenberg
How Judge Cross-Goldenberg rules, drawn from 14 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Cross-Goldenberg
Peggy Cross-Goldenberg became a United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York in January 2026. A graduate of Duke University and Columbia Law School, she previously worked as a supervising trial attorney and training director at Federal Defenders of New York.
Judge Cross-Goldenberg's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Cross-Goldenberg, 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.
- Practices and Rules ↗
- Confidentiality Order (Cross-Goldenberg) ↗
- Discovery Plan and Scheduling Order(Cross-Goldenberg) ↗
Key rules
Filing
Do not send courtesy copies without a specific request.
“No courtesy copies of electronic filings should be sent to Chambers absent a specific request from the Court.”
Discovery
File an unresolved discovery dispute as one joint ECF motion letter requesting an informal conference.
“If the parties are unable to resolve a discovery dispute themselves, the parties must write to the Court and describe their dispute in a single, joint letter, filed on ECF as a ‘Motion’ for an informal discovery conference.”
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 Cross-Goldenberg decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
In Leon-Vizcaino v. NY George's Catering, Cross-Goldenberg recommended denying conditional certification of a wage collective. The employee had not supplied enough facts to show that she and the proposed group shared a common unlawful pay policy.
“plaintiff does not, at this stage, provide a sufficient factual showing that she and other employees were similarly situated with respect to a common policy or plan that violated the law.”
Cautions
In a default judgment request in an insurance dispute, she recommended hearing the defendants’ opposition and vacating their defaults before deciding the coverage claims.
“the preference for resolving matters on the merits is strong”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the Court respectfully recommends that the district court deny plaintiff’s motion for conditional certification”
She recommended remand after the amended complaint joined a New York defendant, ending complete diversity. The district judge adopted the recommendation and remanded the case.
“For the reasons stated above, the Court grants in part defendants’ motion to compel.”
“For these reasons, Sprei’s request for a stay is denied.”
“the Court grants Plaintiff’s Motion”
“the Court grants Plaintiff’s motion in part”
“The Court denies Defendants’ Motion to defer this decision on attorneys’ fees.”
“judgment be granted, but that the request for damages and fees and costs be denied without”
“the district court deny plaintiff’s second amended motion for default judgment for failure to comply with Local Rules 55.2 and 7.1 without prejudice”
“grant defendants’ motion to vacate entry of default”
“deny plaintiffs’ motion for default judgment without prejedice for leave to renew.”
“the motion be granted, and that Plaintiff’s counsel be awarded $17,958.50 in attorney’s fees”
“The Court respectfully recommends that plaintiff’s default judgment motion be granted as to Defendant David Nickle and the New York City Housing Authority. ... The Court respectfully recommends that plaintiff’s motion for default judgment against the New York City Parking Violation Bureau, the New York City Environmental Control Board, and the New York City Traffic Adjudication Bureau be denied, and that claims against them be dismissed without prejudice.”
“the Court respectfully recommends that Plaintiffs’ motion for default judgment be granted”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The thirteen sampled matters included disability-access, immigration, consumer-credit, wage-and-hour, civil-rights, criminal-duty, and other cases. Twelve remained pending in the available case metadata. The single terminated matter does not support 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 | 3 |
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 Cross-Goldenberg: 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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