Robert M. Levy
How Judge Levy rules, drawn from 15 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Levy
Robert M. Levy is a U.S. magistrate judge for the Eastern District of New York, where he began serving in 1995. He earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard College and a law degree from New York University School of Law.
Judge Levy's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Levy, 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
Request an appearance adjournment at least two business days in advance absent an emergency.
“If the request is for an adjournment of a court appearance, absent emergency it shall be made at least 2 business days prior to the scheduled 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 Levy decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Marte v. El Nuevo Jorge's Restaurant, Levy recommended approving a $20,000 FLSA/NYLL settlement after finding it the product of arm's-length negotiations and consistent with Cheeks and Wolinsky. The district judge adopted his recommendation.
“is the product of arms-length negotiations and satisfies the criteria in Cheeks v. Freeport Pancake House, 796 F.3d 199 (2d Cir. 2015) and Wolinsky v. Scholastic [Inc.], 900 F. Supp. 2d 332, 335 (S.D.N.Y. 2012).”
Procedural preferences
In Samtech v. Brooklyn Armed Forces, Levy recommended denying default judgment without prejudice because the movant omitted a required memorandum and Servicemembers Civil Relief Act affidavit and had a defect in mailing papers to two corporate defendants.
“Due to these procedural deficiencies, I respectfully recommend that plaintiff's motion for default judgment be denied without prejudice.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the plaintiff's motion for default judgment is denied, and this case is dismissed.”
“Judge Levy found that the settlement agreement ‘is the product of arms-length negotiations and satisfies the criteria in Cheeks v. Freeport Pancake House, 796 F.3d 199 (2d Cir. 2015) and Wolinsky v. Scholastic [Inc.], 900 F. Supp. 2d 332, 335 (S.D.N.Y. 2012).’ Accordingly, Judge Levy recommended that the Court approve the settlement.”
“a Report and Recommendation (‘Report’) issued by Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy on September 8, 2020 recommending that Defendant Bernard Augustine's motion to dismiss be denied. ... Based on this review, the Court adopts the Report in its entirety.”
“the Court adopted in part the report and recommendation of Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy as to Defendants' motion to dismiss the Complaint pursuant to Rules 37 and 41(b) ... The Court agreed with Judge Levy's conclusion that Plaintiff engaged in witness tampering, but declined to dismiss the Complaint as a sanction against Plaintiff.”
“Because the pleading at issue on the instant motion for a default judgment arguably states a claim, I am sustaining plaintiffs' objection to a Report and Recommendation that would deny their motion for a default judgment under RICO. ... The Court adopts that portion of the R&R that recommended judgment for breach of contract in the amount of $500,000 plus interest, and rejects that portion recommending against judgment on the RICO claims.”
“The court also GRANTS Plaintiff's motion to appoint a receiver/referee and appoints Ian Lagowitz as receiver/referee.”
“the court GRANTS Plaintiffs motion for default judgment as to defendant 1738 East 4th Street LLC and awards damages of $1,622,908.14 from the proceeds of the sale of the Property. ... Plaintiffs motion for default judgment as to non-mortgagor defendants Elie Sabbagh and ECB is DENIED.”
“Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy's Report & Recommendation (‘R&R’), dated August 9, 2016, recommending that this Court deny Defendant's motion to dismiss this action for lack of prosecution. For the following reasons, the court ADOPTS Magistrate Judge Levy's R&R in its entirety.”
“it is hereby ORDERED that defendants' motions to dismiss the complaint be granted. ... It is further ordered that all of Stora's pending motions are denied.”
“It is further ordered that all of Stora's pending motions are denied.”
“For the reasons set forth above, I respectfully recommend that the motion be granted, and the Minor User Plaintiffs' claims be dismissed with prejudice, in accordance with the stipulation of voluntary dismissal.”
“For the reasons set forth above, I respectfully recommend that defendant Kirpal Singh’s motion to vacate the default judgment and dismiss the claims against him be granted.”
“Due to these procedural deficiencies, I respectfully recommend that plaintiff's motion for default judgment be denied without prejudice.”
“the motion for settlement approval without prejudice”
“attorney’s fees are denied without prejudice”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- Levy's groundable workload is a large docket of Fair Labor Standards Act wage-and-hour cases on which he sat as the assigned magistrate judge: supervising discovery, running the court's mediation referrals, and, once the parties consented to his jurisdiction, approving the settlements under the Second Circuit's Cheeks standard.
- Across a sample of 16 such cases filed in 2016 and since closed, time from filing to termination ran from about six months to just over five years, with a median near 380 days; the long tail reflects cases that proceeded through full discovery before settling.
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 | 0 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 4 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2024 | 2 | 5 |
| Mar 2024 | 2 | 3 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 2 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 4 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2021 | 3 | 2 |
| Mar 2021 | 2 | 5 |
| Sep 2020 | 2 | 4 |
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 Levy: 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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