John E. Hoffman, Jr.
How Judge Hoffman rules, drawn from 22 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Hoffman
John E. Hoffman, Jr. joined the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio in 2000. He served as chief bankruptcy judge from October 2021 until his retirement in 2025 and continues to serve on recall. He earned degrees from Wheeling Jesuit University and The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
Judge Hoffman's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Hoffman, 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.
Key rules
Motions
Include a numbered, record-cited Statement of Material Facts with a summary judgment motion.
“a motion for summary judgment shall contain a ‘Statement of Material Facts.’ The Statement of Material Facts shall set forth, in numbered paragraphs, each material fact as to which the moving party contends there is no genuine issue. Each fact listed must be supported by a specific citation to the record.”
Conferences
For an agreed continuance, email all involved parties and the designated chambers address rather than filing a motion.
“Matters set before the Court may be continued without a motion if ALL parties are in agreement by sending an email addressed to ALL involved parties to [email protected].”
Conferences
File a motion promptly before the hearing if any party opposes a continuance.
“If all the parties do NOT agree to a continuance, the party seeking the continuance must file a motion as soon as practicable prior to the scheduled hearing date.”
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).
How Judge Hoffman decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In one preference decision, expert payment-timing analysis established ordinary business terms when the opposing party raised questions without producing competing evidence.
“Unfortunately for Pidcock, posing questions is not sufficient to raise a genuine issue of material fact.”
Procedural preferences
Conflicting and delayed certificates of service did not establish the proper service needed for entry of default.
“Given this timing and inconsistency, the Court has no confidence that Muncy properly served Financial with the summons and the Complaint.”
Cautions
A collateral-valuation argument first raised on reconsideration was treated as waived and barred by judicial estoppel.
“Because the Collateral-Valuation Argument was not made in the Objection but instead was made for the first time in the Reconsideration Motion, and because judicial estoppel bars the assertion of the Collateral-Valuation Argument, the Reconsideration Motion is DENIED except as to Claim 1117.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Because the Amended Complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, the Dismissal Motion is GRANTED, and the Amended Complaint is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
After trial, the debtor recovered $2,025 of an intercepted federal payment as an avoidable preference, while the state-tax setoff and the balance of the federal payment remained with the state.
The court found the settlement agreement ambiguous, scheduled an evidentiary hearing, and deferred the exemption dispute until ownership of the retirement-account interest could be decided.
“For these reasons, the Objection is OVERRULED.”
“the Court GRANTS the Remand Motion’s request for permissive abstention and equitable remand.”
“the Court DENIES the Remand Motion’s request for costs and fees”
“The Court also GRANTS the Stay Motion for the reasons stated above.”
This main-case filing duplicates the opinion entered in the related Lewis adversary proceeding and is retained only to document the archive review.
“For all these reasons, the Remand Motion is DENIED.”
“therefore DENIES Muncy’s requests for entry of a default.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the Summary Judgment Motion is GRANTED.”
“Thus, the Reconsideration Motion is denied as to Claims 1106, 1107, 1114 and 1123.”
“For the reasons set forth above, confirmation of the Amended Plan is DENIED without prejudice to the Debtor’s refiling a second amended Chapter 11 plan.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Five sampled matters were recorded as terminated and the Murray adversary remained open in the search metadata. The adversary stream supplied two express outcomes.
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