Vernelis K. Armstrong
How Judge Armstrong decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On Social Security review she will recommend remand where the ALJ fails to develop or resolve the record -- in Ball she sent a childhood-SSI/ADHD denial back for the agency to consider the claimant's educational and medical history and current providers' diagnoses, and then found the government's defense of that denial not 'substantially justified' for EAJA purposes because the ALJ had failed to resolve conflicts in the medical evidence.
“the Government's position in denying Plaintiff benefits was not substantially justified as the Administrative Law Judge ('ALJ') failed to properly examine and resolve conflicts in the submitted medical evidence.”
On 2254 habeas she applies the standard procedural gateways strictly: a knowing and voluntary guilty plea (Tollett v. Henderson) forecloses pre-plea constitutional claims, and a state-court procedural bar (Ohio App. R. 5(A) delayed-appeal default, post Walker v. Martin) is an adequate and independent state ground that forecloses federal review.
“recommending that the Court deny Petitioner's Writ of Habeas Corpus and his Motion to Dismiss or Suspend Execution of Sentence.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Habeas petition N = 2 |
counts only | |
| Social security appeal N = 1 |
counts only | |
| Eaja fees N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“On June 4, 2013, the court adopted in full Magistrate Judge Vernelis K. Armstrong's Report and Recommendation and ordered the Commissioner to consider Plaintiff's childhood educational and medical history, as well as the evaluations and diagnoses of Plaintiff's current treatment providers regarding Plaintiff's possible Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ('ADHD') (ECF No. 17).”
“Magistrate Judge Armstrong found that the Government's position in denying Plaintiff benefits was not substantially justified as the Administrative Law Judge ('ALJ') failed to properly examine and resolve conflicts in the submitted medical evidence. ... the court adopts as its own the Magistrate Judge's R&R (ECF No. 22) and hereby awards Plaintiff $4,765.15.”
“The case was referred to Magistrate Judge Vernelis K. Armstrong for a Report and Recommendation. The Magistrate Judge subsequently issued a Report and Recommendation recommending that the Court deny Petitioner's Writ of Habeas Corpus and his Motion to Dismiss or Suspend Execution of Sentence. ... Petitioner's Petition for Habeas Corpus (ECF No. 1) is denied in its entirety.”
“Recommendation ('R&R') (Doc. No. 24) of Magistrate Judge Vernelis K. Armstrong, recommending denial of the petition for writ of habeas corpus, filed pursuant to [28 U.S.C. 2254].”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Qualitative, NOT a census, and from GovInfo only. As a Western-Division (Toledo) magistrate judge her written merits work is dominated by (a) 28 U.S.C. 2254 state-prisoner habeas R&Rs (frequently recommending denial/dismissal on procedural-default or plea-validity grounds), (b) Social Security 405(g) R&Rs (mix of affirm and reverse/remand), and (c) a high volume of routine criminal plea-acceptance R&Rs under the district's standard form ('recommends that the plea of guilty be accepted and a finding of guilty be entered by the court') plus supervised-release-modification R&Rs. The plea-acceptance R&Rs are ministerial and do not fit a civil grant-rate model.