Terence P. Kemp

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio magistrate 3 signed orders read

How Judge Kemp decides

Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

What persuades

On a default-judgment motion he looks past the defendant's silence to whether the complaint actually states a valid cause of action against THAT defendant -- pleading specificity matters even when the defendant defaults.

“The primary problem with the motion for default judgment is that the complaint does not, on its face, allege any facts under which Timothy Blanton can be held liable.”

On an unopposed EAJA fee application he treats the government's silence as dispositive: the burden is the Commissioner's to show substantial justification, and failing to respond forfeits it.

“In the absence of an opposing memorandum, the Commissioner cannot satisfy that burden.”

Procedural preferences

Strict on Rule 33: a party may not serve more than 25 interrogatories (including subparts) without leave or stipulation, and a motion to compel must follow an actual served request for production.

“additional interrogatories, without stipulation or leave of court, are prohibited under Rule 33. Further, nowhere in the record is there any indication that Mr. Chiles previously requested document production prior to filing the motion to compel.”

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.

Default judgment
N = 1
Denied: 1 counts only
Motions to dismiss
N = 1
Granted: 1 counts only
Summary judgment
N = 1
Denied: 1 counts only
Attorney fees
N = 1
Granted: 1 counts only
Motions to compel
N = 1
Denied: 1 counts only
Motion to appoint counsel
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.

Wilson v. Blanton
· 2017-01-30
Default judgment (plaintiff) Denied

“Plaintiff has filed an application for entry of default against defendant Timothy W. Blanton. For the following reasons, it will be recommended that the application for entry of default be denied.”

Chiles v. Scott
· 2007-06-20
Motions to compel (plaintiff) Denied

“Mr. Chiles' Motion to Compel (doc. #17) is DENIED.”

Motion to appoint counsel (plaintiff) Granted

“Mr. Chiles' motion for appointment of counsel (doc. #16) is GRANTED conditioned upon the issuance of a final order by the District Judge overruling the motion for summary judgment.”

Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted

“the Court RECOMMENDS that the Defendants' Motion to Dismiss or For Partial Summary Judgment (doc. #20) be GRANTED”

Summary judgment (defendant) Denied

“the Second Motion for Summary Judgment (doc. #24) be DENIED”

Pickett v. Commissioner of Social Security
· 2014-12-03
Attorney fees (plaintiff) Granted

“It is therefore recommended that Plaintiff's application for attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act ("EAJA") (Doc. 24) be granted and that Plaintiff be awarded the sum of $3,399.43 to be paid to counsel unless there is an offsetting debt owed to the United States.”

Younker v. McHenry
· 2014-02-10

Adoption order signed by D.J. Gregory L. Frost (NOT Kemp). Grounds the adoption of Kemp's 2013-11-14 1915(e)(2) screening R&R: pro se IFP 42 U.S.C. 1983 complaint against a public defender DISMISSED for failure to state a claim (public defender not a state actor -- Polk County v. Dodson). Objections OVERRULED, R&R ADOPTED IN FULL. Sua sponte screening -> excluded from motion stats; counted as an order read.

Caseload & timing

From public federal docket records for this judge.

Enumerated via assigned_judge='Terrence Peter Kemp'. Two distinct eras: (1) RECALL era (filed 2019-2022, terminated 2021-2023) is OVERWHELMINGLY Social Security disability appeals (DIWC/DIWW/SSID) where he sits as the 636(c) consent judge of record across Columbus/Dayton/Cincinnati divisions; (2) EARLY career (filed 1984-1991) shows a diverse civil docket -- airplane/product liability, civil rights (jobs & other), patent, prisoner civil rights, motor-vehicle PI, negotiable instruments -- as assigned/referred magistrate. Not tallied to a fixed N; the recall-era SS dockets are the groundable, complete docket holdings used for latency below.