David W. Hercher
How Judge Hercher rules, drawn from 12 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Hercher
David W. Hercher has served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Oregon since January 2017. Before joining the court, he practiced law in Portland.
Judge Hercher's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Hercher's own (checked October 10, 2026), so the court's local rules and general orders are the place to look (court page ↗).
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 Hercher decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In a corporate Subchapter V case confirmed without every class’s acceptance, the court read the discharge exception for debts listed in section 523(a) as applying to corporate debtors too, allowing a fraud-based nondischargeability claim to proceed past dismissal.
“‘Debt(s) of the kind’ refers to types of debt, not types of debtors.”
In a fee-waiver dispute, he evaluated the debtor’s ability to pay in installments as of the petition date and granted her application after rejecting an inference of additional cash support.
“The entitlement to a fee waiver, and specifically a debtor’s ability to pay in installments, should be decided based on the facts as of the petition date.”
Procedural preferences
A discovery-contempt request failed where no discovery order had been violated; even as a request to compel, the movant had not certified a good-faith conference or specified an unmet discovery demand.
“A motion to hold a party in contempt may not be filed unless the party has violated a court order compelling discovery; I’ve entered no such orders.”
In an adversary proceeding, he denied the lender’s summary judgment motion after its lawyer could not identify exhibits supporting a key statement in its declaration.
“When I asked Nationstar’s lawyer to show me what portions of its exhibits supported Turner’s statement, he was unable to do so.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“I will grant Jennifer judgment on the pleadings on claims 1A (18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1348), 1B (18 U.S.C. § 3284), 2 (15 U.S.C. § 77q), 3 (exemption objection), and 5 (11 U.S.C. § 727(d)(1) and (2)). I will otherwise deny the motion for judgment on the pleadings.”
“I will grant her summary judgment on claim 3 (exemption objection) to the extent that it requests a determination of nondischargeability under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2) and claims 4 (11 U.S.C. § 727(a)(3)) and 5 (11 U.S.C. § 727(d)(1) and (2)). I will otherwise deny the summary-judgment motion.”
“I will deny leave to amend the complaint.”
“I will deny the contempt motion, both as one for contempt and as one to motion to compel discovery, and I will grant Jennifer’s request for attorney fees under Civil Rule 37(a)(5)(B).”
“Because I will grant judgment for her on each of Owen’s claims, her motion is moot, and I will deny it for that reason.”
“I will prepare and file a separate order denying the motion, and I will set this action for another pretrial conference.”
“In this action, I will enter judgment for defendants, and in the main case I will grant Eiler’s rejection motion. I will prepare the judgment and main-case order.”
“I will grant the motion for reconsideration.”
“I will deny the fee-waiver application and the motions to dismiss.”
“I will deny Nationstar’s summary-judgment motion in this action.”
“I will deny as moot the Kendereses’ motion for judicial notice.”
“I will grant the fee-waiver application”
“Denial of the motion to dismiss at this time is without prejudice”
After trial, the court entered judgment for the defendant because the challenged payment was not a transfer of the debtor’s property. No party motion was decided in this opinion.
The court declined a lodged money judgment because the complaint had requested only a dischargeability declaration and allowed a revised judgment or amended complaint. The conditional lodging did not yield a final motion outcome.
The letter conditionally addressed clarification of support payments and a plan objection, subject to adding express priority-payment language to the proposed plan. The conditional disposition is excluded from outcome counts.
After trial, the court entered judgment for the defendant on dischargeability. The opinion does not dispose of a party motion.
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The five early-service cases used for duration calculations all terminated in 2017 and contained no express motion disposition. Three later cases were selected separately for motion evidence.
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