Giselle M. López-Soler
How Judge López-Soler rules, drawn from 13 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge López-Soler
Giselle M. López-Soler has served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Puerto Rico since January 2021. She earned degrees from Tufts University, New York University, and the University of Puerto Rico School of Law. Before taking the bench, she clerked for District Judge Salvador E. Casellas and practiced civil and commercial litigation in San Juan.
Judge López-Soler's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge López-Soler's own (checked October 9, 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 9, 2026).
- General Standing Order - Revocation Proceedings ↗
- General Standing Order in re: Change of Plea Hearing ↗
- General Standing Order in re: Procedures for Initial Appearances ↗
- Standing Order In Re: Appropriate Attire ↗
- Standing Order In Re: Access to Presentence Reports Pursuant to Standing Order 11: Request for Copies ↗
- Standing Order In Re: Storage and Management of Sealed and Restricted Documents: New Guidelines ↗
How Judge López-Soler decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In a Law 75 distributorship dispute, she found a distributor's own use of the supplier's shelving and logo to sell a visually similar rival brand undercut its claim to equitable relief, reasoning by analogy to First Circuit case law that a distributor shifting attention to a competing line establishes the supplier's 'just cause' to limit the relationship.
“it is not reasonable to conclude that EMI could use the shelves and logo of Robin Ruth to sell the competing brand of Fashion Code, especially given the similarities between the Fashion Code products and those of Robin Ruth... these actions could certainly be held to constitute defaults on EMI's essential obligations in the distribution of Robin Ruth”
Procedural preferences
Reviewing a bankruptcy appeal, she required strict compliance with Rule 19's joinder analysis before a case is dismissed for the absence of a required party: a court must actually order joinder (or explain why it is infeasible) and weigh the Rule 19(b) equitable factors, rather than simply fault the plaintiff for not having joined the party in the first place.
“The Bankruptcy Court failed to order their joinder under Rule 19(a)(2) and relied on Appellants' failure to have joined them in the first place to justify dismissal... the Bankruptcy Court would have nonetheless had to apply the Rule 19(b) factors prior to dismissing the action altogether.”
Cautions
In United States v. Torres-Diaz, she rejected the defendant's reading of Rahimi as requiring six specified features for every firearm regulation and recommended denying the motion to dismiss the indictment.
“Nowhere does the Supreme Court in Rahimi impose those 'six salient features' as requirements for the constitutionality of a firearm regulation... Defendant's reading of Rahimi is at best off mark.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“The undersigned recommends that Defendants' motions at Docket Nos. 122-124 be GRANTED.”
“the undersigned recommends that Hurwitz's motion to dismiss for insufficient service at Docket No. 144 be deemed MOOT.”
“the undersigned recommends that Plaintiffs' motion for stay pending appeal at Docket No. 202 be GRANTED”
“the undersigned recommends that Defendant's motion to dismiss be DENIED.”
“Torres-Díaz's motion to dismiss (Docket No. 22) and the supplemental motion to dismiss (docket No. 34) be denied.”
“the undersigned recommends that EMI's request for a preliminary injunction be DENIED.”
“the undersigned recommends that the United States Bankruptcy Court's order dismissing the adversary proceeding be affirmed in part and reversed in part.”
“Defendants’ Motion for Partial Judgment on the Pleadings is DENIED.”
“the undersigned recommends that Defendant’s motion to suppress be GRANTED.”
“The Commissioner’s motion is GRANTED. Judgment shall be entered remanding the case to the Commissioner for further administrative proceedings pursuant to the fourth sentence of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g).”
“the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s request for attorney’s fees against the United States of America in the amount of $6,288.75, plus $402.00 in costs, for a total amount of $6,690.75.”
“WCC’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs is DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE subject to a”
“USIC’s motion for additional findings of fact is DENIED”
“WCC’s motion for bond is DENIED”
“USIC’s request for a stay of the monetary judgment without a bond is GRANTED”
“the Commissioner’s decision is REVERSED, and the case is REMANDED”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- Her assigned docket is dominated by a large consent (28 U.S.C. 636(c)) Social Security disability-appeal caseload, 39 such cases enumerated filed 2021-2024, alongside consent civil matters spanning personal-injury/medical-malpractice diversity suits, commercial and distributorship disputes, and intellectual-property matters, plus criminal duty (search warrants, initial proceedings, and referred felony motions).
- This matches the registry's discovery note that she runs a large consent Social Security docket.
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 | 2 | 1 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2024 | 2 | 1 |
| Sep 2023 | 2 | 2 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 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 United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, not for Judge López-Soler: 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 | 584 | 13.9 months |
| Closed with no court action | 84 | 7.6 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 470 | 14.1 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 13 | 37.1 months |
| Closed during trial | 17 | 37.2 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 584 | 13.9 months |
| Sep 2024 | 706 | 13.6 months |
| Sep 2023 | 778 | 17.6 months |
| Sep 2022 | 725 | 19 months |
| Sep 2021 | 818 | 17.1 months |
| Sep 2020 | 862 | 13.9 months |
| Sep 2019 | 1,249 | 16.8 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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