Sarah L. Cave
How Judge Cave rules, drawn from 13 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Cave
Sarah L. Cave has served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York since 2019. She earned her law degree from the University of Michigan and spent eighteen years in private practice before joining the court.
Judge Cave's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Cave, 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 Report and Proposed Case Management Plan for Pro Se Cases ↗
- Individual Practices in Criminal Cases ↗
- Individual Rules and Practices in Civil Cases ↗
- Model Confidentiality Stipulation and Proposed Protective Order ↗
- Model Joint Electronic Discovery Submission and Proposed Order ↗
- Proposed Remote Deposition Stipulation ↗
- Report of Rule 26(f) Conference and Proposed Case Management Plan ↗
- Standing Order Applicable to Settlement Conferences Before Magistrate Judge Cave ↗
Key rules
Filing
Letter-motion courtesy copies are unnecessary unless attached exhibits exceed 50 pages.
“4. Courtesy Copies. Courtesy copies of Letter‐Motions are not required unless the attached exhibits exceed 50 pages, in which case one (1) courtesy copy, marked as such on a cover page, should be submitted to Chambers promptly after filing. Courtesy copies should bear the ECF”
Discovery
A discovery dispute requires a good-faith conference; exchanging letters or email alone is insufficient.
“1. Requirement to Meet and Confer. The Court will not hear any discovery dispute unless the moving party (including a non‐party seeking relief) has first conferred in good faith with any adverse party to resolve the dispute. An exchange of letters or emails alone does not satisfy this requirement. Counsel must respond promptly and in good faith to any request from another party to confer in accordance with this paragraph.”
Discovery
After conferring, request a discovery conference by ECF letter-motion of at most 1,050 words.
“2. Letter‐Motion for Discovery Conference. If the parties have met and conferred but were unable to resolve their dispute, the moving party must request a discovery conference with the Court, by Letter‐Motion, as required by Local Civil Rule 37.2. Counsel should select the ‘Letter‐ Motion’ option—not ‘Motion to Compel’—when filing on ECF. Letter- Motions may not exceed 1,050 words in length, exclusive of attachments, which should be kept to a minimum, and must clearly set forth the issues”
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 Cave decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
In Social Security review, Cave required the administrative law judge to develop missing treating-source evidence rather than rely on the absence of such an opinion.
“it was the ALJ’s duty to develop the record to obtain such an opinion.”
When evaluating mental-health evidence, Cave emphasized longitudinal context and particular caution before favoring a non-examining consultant over treating and examining sources.
“given Mr. White’s mental impairments, the ALJ was obligated to exercise particular caution in evaluating the medical opinion evidence.”
In Milone, the court held that it could not grant permission to file a late New York transit notice of claim, and it dismissed the time-barred claims against the transit defendants with prejudice.
“this Court lacks the power to grant the relief Plaintiffs seek.”
For a nonparty subpoena dispute tied to an Arizona action, Cave transferred the motion under Rule 45(f) because the court supervising the underlying discovery was better placed to decide enforcement.
“Judge Logan is best positioned to adjudicate whether to enforce the Subpoenas.”
In Wright, Cave denied a request for faculty, staff, and administrator racial-demographic data in a school-discrimination discovery dispute.
“Plaintiffs’ Request that Defendants produce information concerning the racial composition of ECFS’s faculty, staff, and administrators while Wright was a student at ECFS is DENIED.”
In one privilege dispute, Cave required more than speculation that protected documents might reveal fraud before applying the crime-fraud exception.
“Evergreen has offered nothing more than conclusory assertions that somewhere in the 45 pages of Privileged Documents ‘might provide evidence of a crime or fraud[,]’ which is insufficient to satisfy the burden to show that the crime-fraud exception applies.”
In Goven, Cave found that the website terms formed a valid arbitration agreement and delegated the scope question to the arbitrator; she compelled arbitration and stayed the case.
“the arbitrator, not this Court, must determine arbitrability.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Mr. Ewen’s motion for judgment on the pleadings (ECF No. 15) is GRANTED”
“the Commissioner’s motion (ECF No. 20) is DENIED.”
“Barnes’ Motion (ECF No. 15) is DENIED.”
“the Commissioner’s Motion (ECF No. 17) is GRANTED”
“Mr. White’s Motion is GRANTED”
“the Commissioner’s Motion is DENIED”
“the Motion is GRANTED, the Cross-Motion is DENIED, and Plaintiffs’ claims against the Transit Defendants are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“Because the statute of limitations has expired, granting the Cross-Motion with leave to amend after the Demand Requirement is satisfied would be futile, so the Cross-Motion is denied.”
“Ms. Medranda’s Motion is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART”
“the Commissioner’s Motion is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.”
“the Commissioner’s 60(b) Motion is GRANTED”
“Ms. Medranda’s Cross-Motion is DENIED.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the Motion is GRANTED.”
“Mr. Briggs’s motion for judgment on the pleadings (ECF No. 12) is GRANTED”
“the Commissioner’s motion (ECF No. 17) is DENIED.”
“Accordingly, in the interest of ‘judicial economy and [to] avoid the risk of inconsistent rulings[,]’ the Motion shall be transferred to the District of Arizona.”
“In light of this Order, however, which transfers the Motion to the District of Arizona, the Extension Request is DENIED as moot.”
“Plaintiffs’ Request that Defendants produce information concerning the racial composition of ECFS’s faculty, staff, and administrators while Wright was a student at ECFS is DENIED.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the Second MTC is DENIED. Muddy Bites is neither required to produce the Privileged Documents nor submit them for in camera review.”
“For the reasons stated above, the Request is GRANTED. All discovery is STAYED pending”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- The 40 returned post-appointment matters comprised 22 Social Security appeals, 12 wage-and-hour cases, and six matters involving railroad injury, prisoner rights, personal injury, disability access, insurance, or education rights.
- The fixed 12-case outcome sample consists entirely of terminated consent Social Security appeals and describes that high-availability vein rather than Cave's full caseload.
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 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 3 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 0 |
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 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, not for Judge Cave: 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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Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Cave, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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