Michael E. Wiles
How Judge Wiles rules, drawn from 21 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Wiles
Michael E. Wiles has served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York since March 3, 2015. He earned an A.B. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Before his appointment, he was a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, where his practice focused on commercial litigation and bankruptcy.
Judge Wiles's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Wiles, as published on the court's website (checked October 10, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
- Chambers' Rules ↗
- Transcript Restrictions & Redaction Guidelines ↗
- Scheduling Order ↗
- Rule 2004 Order ↗
- Joint Pretrial Order ↗
Key rules
Filing
For matters scheduled for a hearing, courtesy copies of briefs and motions are unnecessary unless Chambers directs otherwise.
“For matters scheduled for a hearing, unless Chambers instructs otherwise, no courtesy copies to Chambers are required of briefs or motions.”
Motions
Obtain a hearing date before filing a request for relief that requires a hearing.
“Requests for relief requiring a hearing that are filed without first obtaining a hearing date will not be acted on.”
Motions
Ordinarily limit moving and responsive briefs to 40 pages and reply briefs to 15 pages.
“Unless ordered otherwise, moving and responsive briefs shall ordinarily be no more than 40 pages in length, and reply briefs no more than 15 pages, in each case exclusive of the table of contents and table of authorities.”
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).
- Procedures for the Filing, Signing, and Verification of Documents by Electronic Means ↗
- General Order 633: Procedures for the Filing, Service, and Management of Highly Sensitive Documents ↗
- Amended Guidelines for Fees and Disbursements for Professionals ↗
- Procedures for Monthly Compensation and Reimbursement of Expenses of Professionals ↗
- Procedural Guidelines for Prepackaged Chapter 11 Cases ↗
- Procedures Governing Mediation of Matters and the Use of Early Neutral Evaluation and Mediation/Voluntary Arbitration in Bankruptcy Cases and Adversary Proceedings ↗
- General Order 634: Guidelines for Combined Disclosure Statement and Plan, Combined Hearings, and Conditional Approval ↗
How Judge Wiles decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Greenwich Retail Group LLC v. Moby Capital, LLC, he directed the plaintiff to separate the remaining claims and plead their elements distinctly in an amended complaint.
“The amended pleading should clearly separate the remaining causes of action and separately plead the elements of each such claim and should also eliminate the duplication in the asserted claims, so that the parties and the Court will have a clear roadmap as to the issues that must be addressed and the relief that is being sought under each theory.”
In In re Peggy Nestor, he approved a revised settlement stipulation after the parties made changes he had identified at an earlier hearing.
“The Third Amended Stipulation and Order contains the revisions that I said that I would approve when the matter was discussed at the September 22, 2026 hearing.”
Procedural preferences
In In re Peggy Nestor, he found that the requested stay did not identify the particular court action to be stayed.
“The document did not specify any particular actions that Ms. Nestor wishes to stay.”
Cautions
In Vélez v. Mazyck, he reminded a party that she was responsible for verifying that cited decisions and quoted passages actually existed.
“Defendant is reminded that she is responsible for ensuring that any citations she presents to the Court should be to decisions that actually exist and that any quotations should be of text that actually appears in real court decisions/opinions/rulings/orders.”
In Manjarrez v. SunTrust Mortgage, Inc., he held that the state foreclosure judgment barred claims already raised, or that should have been raised, in that action.
“Any issues raised in that action (or that could and should have been raised there) are now barred by res judicata as a result of the entry of the state court judgment and the absence of any pending appeal.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“To the extent the Emergency Motion for a Stay is directed to this Court, it is denied.”
The decision set the governing standards for 89 future-claim requests, but the claim-specific outcomes appeared only in separate exhibits and were not classified from this document.
“For the foregoing reasons, this Court will issue an Order (i) granting the Plan Administrator’s motion to intervene in the Second Removed Action and the Third Removed Action, (ii) dismissing the Second Removed Action and the Third Removed Action, with prejudice;”
“For the foregoing reasons, this Court will issue one or more Orders: (1) denying the motion to dismiss or the motion to remove the Condo Board as debtor in possession;”
“denying the motions for mandatory abstention, permissive abstention, remand and/or relief from the automatic stay as to the actions that have been removed from state court to this court;”
“approving the retention of Tarter, Krinsky & Drogin LLP as attorneys for the Debtor;”
“denying, without prejudice, the motion by the Residential Board and Waterscape to give special powers to the Subchapter V trustee;”
“denying, without prejudice, the request by the Subchapter V trustee that I order the parties to submit to mediation.”
“ORDERED, that the Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED; and it is further ORDERED, that the Complaint is dismissed, without prejudice to the filing of an amended complaint within 45 days of the date of entry of this Order.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Ms. Nestor Cassini’s request for issuance of an Order directing the Trustee to cease the removal of personal property from the Townhouse is DENIED.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Ms. Nestor Cassini’s most recent requests for the issuance of orders permitting her to purchase the Townhouse are DENIED.”
“ORDERED, that the Debtor’s motion is denied, without prejudice to the Debtor’s right to seek relief from the District Court.”
“For the reasons set forth below, the motions to dismiss are granted in part, with leave to replead some of the dismissed claims, and are otherwise denied.”
“For the foregoing reasons, BAM’s motion to dismiss Voyager’s Counterclaims is denied, though Voyager’s pursuit of its fraud claim shall be subject to the rulings set forth in this Decision.”
“The motion for reconsideration of the Surrender/Stay Relief Order is denied.”
“I find that there are no matters that I overlooked, no legal errors that I made, and no new evidence that would warrant reconsideration of the Conversion Order.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Complaint will be dismissed, with prejudice, insofar as it relates to HSBC and Wells Fargo.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
All six matters were pending in the search metadata. Five early streams supplied no separately readable outcome; Nestor supplied one emergency-stay denial.
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