Richard Mark Gergel
How Judge Gergel decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Applies the FLSA tip-credit and willfulness standards strictly against employers: deducting bar-shortage losses from tipped employees' wages while claiming a tip credit violates the FLSA as a matter of law, and continuing the practice after suit supports willfulness and liquidated damages.
“For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 41) is GRANTED.”
Procedural preferences
Will convert a Rule 12(b) motion that relies on matters outside the pleadings into a Rule 56 motion under Rule 12(d) and resolve limitations and discovery-rule questions at summary judgment where the notice facts are uncontroverted.
“the Court construes the motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment and GRANTS the motion for summary judgment. ... The claims against Defendants Awuko Abrasives Wandmacher GmbH & Co KG and Wandmacher GmbH are dismissed with prejudice.”
Construes removal jurisdiction strictly and rejects pre-service removal when it would turn the forum-defendant rule into a race to federal court.
“if the forum-defendant rule were read to allow pre-service removal, it would provide an incentive for defendants to employ gamesmanship by racing to remove newly filed actions”
Cautions
On first-party insurance bad-faith claims he grants the insurer summary judgment where it had a reasonable ground to contest valuation; a wrong-but-reasonable settlement prediction is not bad faith.
“Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. No. 40) is GRANTED.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. No. 40) is GRANTED.”
“Plaintiffs Motion to Certify Questions (Dkt. No. 41) is DENIED.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 41) is GRANTED.”
“the Court declines, grants in part and denies in part Mr. Enzor's motion for summary judgment, and denies SCDPS's motion for summary judgment.”
“and denies SCDPS's motion for summary judgment.”
“the Court construes the motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment and GRANTS the motion for summary judgment. ... The claims against Defendants Awuko Abrasives Wandmacher GmbH & Co KG and Wandmacher GmbH are dismissed with prejudice.”
“For the reasons stated above, Plaintiff’s motion to remand (Dkt. No. 11) is GRANTED. The Court REMANDS the action to the Court of Common Pleas for Jasper County, South Carolina for adjudication on the merits.”
“The Court REMANDS the action to the Court of Common Pleas for Jasper County, South Carolina for adjudication on the merits. All other pending motions are denied as moot.”
“The Court denies TFD’s motion for leave to file a sur-reply for various reasons.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 470 days (N = 8).
The sampled docket spans civil-rights and habeas cases, Social Security appeals, insurance and contract disputes, product-liability and medical-malpractice cases, employment claims, consumer-credit cases, and federal criminal matters. It also includes the national firefighting-foam multidistrict litigation and the Jose Padilla enemy-combatant damages case, Lebron v. Rumsfeld.
Put Judge Gergel's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Gergel actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Gergel's own signed orders and cites them.