Marcos E. Lopez
How Judge Lopez rules, drawn from 17 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Lopez
Marcos E. López is a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Puerto Rico. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in 1994, an M.B.A. from Cornell University in 1997, and a law degree from Cornell Law School in 1998. Before his 2007 appointment, he clerked for the district court, practiced in San Juan, and served as an Assistant United States Attorney.
Judge Lopez's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Lopez'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 Lopez decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In United States v. Alicea-Curras, López recommended denying a motion to dismiss the machinegun charge because deciding whether the modified firearms met the statutory definition required resolving facts before trial.
“Alicea's argument is not properly before the Court on a motion to dismiss the indictment; it requires either impermissibly assuming facts or weighing proffered facts before trial.”
Procedural preferences
In Toledo-López’s disability appeal, López upheld the ALJ’s decision to give less weight to Dr. Zayas’s spirometry opinion. The court cited differences from earlier tests, the claimant’s poor effort during the examination, and the test’s timing after the insured period.
“the ALJ’s ultimate decision finding Dr. Zayas’s opinion unpersuasive was supported by substantial evidence.”
Cautions
In Ferrao-Rivera v. Puerto Rico Department of Education, the district judge rejected the portion of López's recommendation that would have dismissed the Title VII retaliation claim, holding that the alleged retaliatory act fell within the filing period.
“Accordingly, the Court will deny defendants’ motion to dismiss on the retaliation claim.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“After conducting a de novo review of the record, the testimonies at the evidentiary hearing and the R & R, the court finds no reason to depart from the Magistrate-Judge's recommendation. Accordingly, defendant's motion to suppress the pretrial identification(s) is DENIED. ... the court hereby ADOPTS the R & R in full.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the Court ADOPTS the magistrate judge's December 16, 2024 Report and Recommendation. (Docket No. 130.) Consequently, Alicea's motion to dismiss the indictment is DENIED. (Docket No. 119.)”
“The Court ADOPTS IN PART and REJECTS IN PART the R&R (Docket No. 28) and GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART defendant's motion to dismiss. (Docket No. 10.) The defendant's motion to dismiss is DENIED as to Ferrao's Title VII retaliation claim and his Title VII religious discrimination claim, and GRANTED as to his other Title VII claims, his ADEA claim, and his claims under Puerto Rico Law 100 and Puerto Rico Law 115.”
“the Court ADOPTS IN PART and REJECTS IN PART the magistrate judge's recommendations. All federal claims against defendants Jose Fuentes-Agostini, Pedro Toledo-Davila, Anibal Solivan-Solivan, Daniel Colon, Hector Tirado, Jose Figueroa, and Jose Capo are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. The section 1983 claims against defendants Francisco Baez-Quinones, Jesus Figueroa-Cruz and Gabriel Redondo under the Fourteenth Amendment are also DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“Subsequently, the Magistrate-Judge recommended: (a) recording at N-11 is to be suppressed (b) the request for suppression of N-14 is deemed Moot, inasmuch as the objections to the same were withdrawn by defendant(s) (c) the suppression of tapes at N-9, N-10, N-13, N-15 and N-18 be denied ... No objections to the Report and Recommendation were filed by the government nor by defendants. Accordingly, the Magistrate-Judge's Report and Recommendation is APPROVED and the recommendations therein ADOPTED.”
“WHEREFORE, it is recommended that defendant [7] Antonio De Jesus-Velazquez's motion to suppress (Docket 181) be DENIED, but that the transcript of recording N-26 be amended as suggested above.”
“The Court concurs with the R&R that: Under the totality of the circumstances, any comments by [DEA agents], in combination with Defendant's fatigue and inexperience with the American justice system, are not enough to outweigh the circumstances indicating Defendant's voluntary waiver... The Court agrees with this recommendation. Consequently, the magistrate judge's findings and recommendations are ADOPTED. The motion to suppress Rodriguez-Garcia's post-arrest statements is DENIED.”
“it is recommended that Defendant’s motion to dismiss be DENIED.”
“it is recommended that the aforementioned motions to dismiss (ECF Nos. 31, 32, 58, 81, 95) be DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.”
“motion to remand the domestication proceeding be GRANTED.”
“this motion is DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.”
“Universal’s Motion to Deposit Funds is GRANTED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The sampled consent Social Security docket includes two decisions affirming denials of benefits and one case resolved by an agreed remand to the agency, followed by an attorney-fee dispute. His criminal-duty work and referred reports and recommendations are represented separately in the reasoning sample.
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 | 3 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 1 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 2 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 9 | 0 |
| Sep 2023 | 10 | 2 |
| Mar 2023 | 5 | 2 |
| Sep 2022 | 2 | 1 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 3 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 2 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2020 | 7 | 1 |
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 Lopez: 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).
Draft for Judge Lopez with the record in hand
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