Thomas J. McAvoy
How Judge McAvoy rules, drawn from 13 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge McAvoy
Thomas James McAvoy is a judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Judge McAvoy received a commission on March 4, 1986. Judge McAvoy assumed senior status on September 17, 2003.
Judge McAvoy's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge McAvoy's own (checked October 12, 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 McAvoy decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Dismisses claims under statutes that provide no private right of action, such as the Medicare Act or Elder Justice Act, with prejudice, and finds private-hospital care does not create federal-question jurisdiction.
“Defendants' motions to dismiss, dkt. # 23 and 25, are hereby GRANTED. The motions are hereby GRANTED without prejudice to the extent described above”
Procedural preferences
In New York Labor Law wage cases, dismisses a Section 195(3) wage-statement claim where the paystubs already contain the statutory data, while holding Section 191 frequency-of-pay claims privately actionable.
“Defendant's motion to dismiss, Dkt. No. 12, is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part”
Cautions
A material fact dispute over whether prison threats made grievance remedies unavailable defeats summary judgment on PLRA exhaustion.
“ORDERED that Defendants' motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 70) is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“ORDERED that Defendants' motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 70) is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part”
“Defendants' motions to dismiss, dkt. # 23 and 25, are hereby GRANTED. The motions are hereby GRANTED without prejudice to the extent described above”
“Defendant's motion to dismiss, Dkt. No. 12, is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part”
“Defendant's renewed motion to dismiss the First Cause of Action, Dkt. No. 23, is DENIED”
“ORDERED that the Motion [Dkt. No. 11] is GRANTED; and it is further ORDERED that Judgment of Default be entered against the defendant property”
“The objections of Defendant Anthony I. Odimegwu and Third-Party Defendant Ebelechukwu Odimegwu to the government's writ of garnishment directed at property of Defendant held by the Vanguard Group, Inc., dkt. #s 11-12, are hereby OVERRULED.”
“Defendant's motion for judgment on the pleadings, dkt. # 11, is hereby GRANTED. Plaintiff's motion for judgment on the pleadings, dkt. # 9, is hereby DENIED.”
“Defendant’s motion for summary judgment, dkt. # 70, is hereby GRANTED.”
“Defendants’ motion to dismiss, dkt. # 10, is hereby GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. The motion is granted with respect to Plaintiff’s NYSHRL claims against the University and with respect to any Title VII claims against the individual Defendants. The motion is denied in all other respects.”
“Defendants’ motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 41, is GRANTED.”
“Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s Fourteenth Amendment due process claims against Defendants, ECF No. 31, is GRANTED. These claims are DISMISSED without prejudice to being brought in a new action if Plaintiff can establish that his parole revocation determination or Case 5:21-cv-01098-TJM-ML Document 43 Filed 09/19/23 Page 11 of 12 12 subsequent sentence have been reversed on direct appeal, expunged by executive order, declared invalid by a state tribunal authorized to make such determination, or called into question by a federal court's issuance of a writ of habeas corpus.”
“Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 39, is DENIED as moot.”
“- that much of Defendants’ motion (Dkt. No. 31) brought pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. This aspect of the motion is granted to the extent that all claims against Turnbull, Stroud, and LeDuigou are dismissed without prejudice for lack of personal jurisdiction; Count II is dismissed without prejudice to Plaintiff moving for leave to replead this claim; Counts III, IV, V, VI, and VII are dismissed with prejudice, and this aspect of the motion is denied as to Count I.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 89.5 days (N = 20).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 339 days (N = 2).
The reviewed 2018 filings span prisoner civil-rights and habeas matters, consumer-credit claims, education and disability-access disputes, employment cases, Social Security appeals, diversity torts, contract and arbitration disputes, and trademark litigation. Many civil matters proceeded through magistrate-judge referrals.
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 | 13 | 9 |
| Mar 2025 | 5 | 7 |
| Sep 2024 | 14 | 8 |
| Mar 2024 | 18 | 14 |
| Sep 2023 | 3 | 22 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 23 |
| Sep 2022 | 3 | 22 |
| Mar 2022 | 4 | 25 |
| Sep 2021 | 1 | 18 |
| Mar 2021 | 1 | 21 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 19 |
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 McAvoy: 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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