Brenda K. Sannes
How Judge Sannes rules, drawn from 24 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Sannes
Brenda Kay Sannes is a judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. Appointed by President Barack Obama, Judge Sannes received a commission on November 21, 2014.
Judge Sannes's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Sannes's own (checked October 9, 2026), so the court's local rules and general orders are the place to look (court page ↗).
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 9, 2026).
- General Order 14: Civil RICO Statement ↗
- General Order 15: Uniform Procedure for Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Cases ↗
- General Order 18: Social Security Docket Assignment, Management, and Filing Requirements ↗
- General Order 22: Administrative Procedures for Electronic Case Filing ↗
- General Order 25: Civil Case Assignment and Filing Order ↗
- General Order 47: Mandatory Mediation Program ↗
- General Order 52: Letters Regarding Sentencings ↗
- General Order 62: Procedures for Filing, Service and Management of Highly Sensitive Documents ↗
How Judge Sannes decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
In Cook, Sannes remanded after finding the defendant’s notice of removal outside the statutory thirty-day window.
“the Court finds Defendant’s July 7, 2026, Notice of Removal was filed outside the thirty-day period prescribed by 28 U.S.C. § 1446(b).”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Defendant's motion to dismiss (Dkt. No. 22) is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part”
“ORDERED that the County's motion to dismiss (Dkt. No. 16) is DENIED”
“Defendant's motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 25) is DENIED without prejudice to renewal”
“ORDERED that Defendant's motion to dismiss (Dkt. No. 29) is DENIED”
“ORDERED that Defendants' motion to dismiss (Dkt. No. 24) is DENIED”
“ORDERED that Defendants' motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 46) is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART”
“Defendants' motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 30) is GRANTED as to ... and ... DENIED as to ... and those claims will proceed to trial, pursuant to the order of Chief Judge Brenda K. Sannes on September 25, 2025”
“ORDERED that evidence that the Nation lost profits in connection with the sale of cannabis products is precluded as irrelevant”
“ORDERED that Defendants' cross-motion to dismiss (Dkt. No. 52) is DENIED in its entirety”
“ORDERED that Defendants' motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 99) is GRANTED”
“ORDERED that Defendants' motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 94) is GRANTED”
FELA / Federal Safety Appliances Act / Locomotive Inspection Act personal-injury suit by a pro se railroad engineer. After plaintiff's counsel withdrew (unable to contact plaintiff) and plaintiff failed to comply with court orders or keep a current address on file, Magistrate Judge Dancks recommended dismissal under Rule 41(b). No objections were filed (the mailing was returned undeliverable); Judge Sannes reviewed for clear error and adopted the recommendation, dismissing the complaint without prejudice for failure to prosecute. The order resolved no pending party motion and is recorded as a procedural disposition rather than a merits ruling.
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 240.5 days (N = 20).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 223 days (N = 6).
- 2019 tenure cohort is dominated by pro se prisoner 42:1983 civil-rights cases (Jones/Agee/Clay/Lev/Bowman/Wilder v. Cuomo et al.), plus employment civil-rights (ADA, ERISA, FMLA, Title VII), diversity product-liability/personal-injury (NutriBullet, Jo-Ann Stores), IDEA/education (SG, Diederich), Social Security appeals (Watson), and contract/insurance/CERCLA-environmental (Albany Molecular, Penn Mfrs, MPM Silicones).
- N.D.N.Y. routes most civil cases through referral magistrates.
- Referral magistrate judges who recur on these dockets include Christian F.
- Hummel, Andrew T. Baxter, Daniel J.
- Stewart, Therese Wiley Dancks, David Peebles, Miroslav Lovric, Randolph F.
- Treece.
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 | 11 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 2 | 11 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 10 |
| Mar 2025 | 3 | 10 |
| Sep 2024 | 1 | 13 |
| Mar 2024 | 9 | 22 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 18 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 18 |
| Sep 2022 | 2 | 20 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 17 |
| Sep 2021 | 2 | 23 |
| Mar 2021 | 4 | 27 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 22 |
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 Northern District of New York, not for Judge Sannes: 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 | 1,302 | 8.4 months |
| Closed with no court action | 227 | 4.2 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 796 | 7.4 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 267 | 17.2 months |
| Closed during trial | 12 | 53.8 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 1,302 | 8.4 months |
| Sep 2024 | 1,393 | 7.7 months |
| Sep 2023 | 1,249 | 7.9 months |
| Sep 2022 | 1,444 | 12 months |
| Sep 2021 | 1,120 | 10.2 months |
| Sep 2020 | 1,195 | 8.6 months |
| Sep 2019 | 1,187 | 9 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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