P. Kevin Castel
How Judge Castel rules, drawn from 28 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Castel
P. Kevin Castel is a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Judge Castel received a commission on September 22, 2003. Judge Castel assumed senior status on August 5, 2017.
Judge Castel's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Castel, 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.
- Case Management Plan and Scheduling Order ↗
- Individual Practices for Sentencing Proceedings ↗
- Individual Practices in Civil Cases ↗
Key rules
Filing
Send chambers courtesy copies of pleadings longer than 40 pages within five days of filing.
“D. Courtesy Copies. If, but only if, they exceed 40 pages in length, courtesy copies of all pleadings (complaint, answer, counterclaim, etc.) shall be sent to Chambers within five days of filing.”
Motions
File a pre-motion letter before a civil motion unless a listed exception applies.
“A. Pre-Motion Letter in Civil Cases i. The filing of a Pre-Motion letter to the Court is required prior to the filing of all motions, except the following: a Discovery motions, which are governed by 3.B. below; b Motions brought by order to show cause; c Motions by incarcerated pro se litigants;”
Discovery
Bring discovery disputes by letter-motion, including the discovery request and response or objection.
“B. Discovery Disputes. Discovery Disputes shall be brought on by letter motion and the parties shall comply with Local Civil Rule 37.2 unless otherwise ordered. A Discovery Dispute Letter to the Court shall contain the certification required under Rule 37(a)(1), Fed. R. Civ. P., and set forth the full text of any a discovery request and response or objection thereto, together with any case law support and any affidavits required to adjudicate the issue. The party from”
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 8, 2026).
- Amended Standing Order on Highly Sensitive Documents ↗
- Second Amended Standing Order on Civil Case Opening ↗
- Amended Standing Order on Miscellaneous Civil Case Opening ↗
- Standing Order on Applications to File a Civil Case Under Seal ↗
- Standing Order on Emergency Relief and Section 2255 Filing Procedures ↗
- Notice on Immigration Custody Habeas Petitions and Emergency Relief ↗
How Judge Castel decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Footbridge Ltd. Trust v. Countrywide, he granted summary judgment on statute-of-repose grounds and declined to reach the defendants' separate statute-of-limitations arguments.
“The defendants’ motion for summary judgment (Docket # 42) is GRANTED.”
Procedural preferences
In Boban v. Bank Julius Baer Postretirement Health & Life Insurance Program, Judge Castel declined to convert a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to summary judgment and considered only relevant documents incorporated into or integral to the complaint.
“I may consider some, but not all of those documents on a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) without converting it into a motion for summary judgment. Because I decline to convert this motion, I will only consider those documents which are relevant to the arguments raised and were either incorporated by reference into the Complaint or integral to plaintiffs' claims.”
Cautions
In Issac v. City of New York, he found that the defendants had stated legitimate reasons for the challenged employment actions and that the plaintiff had not produced evidence of pretext or of discrimination or retaliation as a substantial factor.
“Defendants have stated legitimate, non-discriminatory, non-retaliatory reasons for the adverse employment actions at issue and plaintiff has failed to come forward with evidence that the reasons are pretextual nor has plaintiff come forward with evidence that discrimination or retaliation was a substantial factor in the employment actions at issue.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the reasons more fully explained below, the summary judgment motion is granted because no reasonable fact finder could find in plaintiffs favor.”
“For the reasons stated below, the Moving Defendants' motion is granted in part and denied in part.”
“For the reasons stated below, plaintiffs motion for summary judgment against defendant Shah is denied.”
“Defendants, other than Affordable Hospitality, Inc. (‘AHI’), are granted summary judgment on plaintiffs demand for an accounting. In all other respects, defendants' motion for summary judgment is denied.”
“The defendants' motion to preclude plaintiffs expert from testifying at trial is granted.”
“For the reasons stated below, defendants' motion to dismiss is granted.”
“Defendants move for summary judgment under Rule 56(a), Fed.R.Civ.P. For the reasons stated below, defendants' motion for summary judgment is granted.”
“the Court concludes that EIPA does not create a new private right of action for the plaintiffs to sue TD Bank for money damages and that the plaintiffs' common law claims fail as a matter of law. TD Bank's motion to dismiss is granted.”
“Defendants Uchimoto, Newman, and Erbek have moved to dismiss the claims against them. For the reasons set forth below, defendants' motions are granted in part and denied in part”
“Plaintiffs' fraud-based claims -- the four federal securities laws claims, the North Carolina statutory claim, and the fraudulent concealment claim -- survive only insofar as they allege that nondisclosure of the ‘kickback’ payments caused plaintiffs to needlessly pay management fees to TAG VI. The fraud-based claims are otherwise dismissed for failure to allege loss causation and/or proximate cause.”
“the doctrine of res judicata forecloses this action brought by Sheppard's co-owner because the two are in privity and every claim asserted here was already adjudicated on the merits in Sheppard. Therefore, the Court grants the defendants' motions to dismiss and for judgment on the pleadings.”
“The Court also denies the defendants' motion for sanctions.”
“the defendants' motion is granted as to plaintiffs claims under RICO and the Robinson-Patman Act, and those claims are dismissed. I decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims, and they are remanded to Supreme Court, New York County, from which the case was removed.”
“I grant defendant's motion to dismiss plaintiffs Section 349 claim, and deny defendant's motion to dismiss plaintiffs claim for consequential damages.”
“Both parties have moved for summary judgment in their favor. Rule 56, Fed. R.Civ.P. For the reasons outlined below, Alitalia's motion is denied and ATPCO's motion is granted.”
“Alitalia's motion is denied and ATPCO's motion is granted.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- Two views. (1) Current senior-status assignments skew to high-profile commercial/IP: Schedule-A trademark and copyright enforcement, AI-era copyright (a generative-music defendant), platform and ad-tech disputes against Google, and commercial contract: these are mostly pending. (2) A reach-back to terminated dockets shows two recurring resolution paths: hard-fought commercial/securities cases that produce a written dispositive ruling (the preliminary-injunction and motion-to-dismiss opinions sampled below), and qui tam False Claims Act actions that the United States declines to intervene in and that then resolve by settlement or voluntary dismissal rather than a merits ruling.
- Case durations below are from the terminated sample only, not a tenure-wide figure.
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 | 4 |
| 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 | 13 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 4 | 13 |
| Sep 2025 | 5 | 11 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 13 |
| Sep 2024 | 1 | 8 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 10 |
| Sep 2023 | 2 | 6 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 11 |
| Sep 2022 | 3 | 8 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 13 |
| Sep 2021 | 1 | 15 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 11 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 14 |
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 Southern District of New York, not for Judge Castel: 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 | 9,565 | 5.6 months |
| Closed with no court action | 1,749 | 3.5 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 6,416 | 5.1 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 1,313 | 14.1 months |
| Closed during trial | 87 | 51.7 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 9,565 | 5.6 months |
| Sep 2024 | 10,695 | 6.4 months |
| Sep 2023 | 10,316 | 5.6 months |
| Sep 2022 | 11,818 | 6.1 months |
| Sep 2021 | 10,662 | 5.7 months |
| Sep 2020 | 10,118 | 6.6 months |
| Sep 2019 | 11,357 | 6.6 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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