Sheria Akins Clarke
How Judge Clarke rules, drawn from 16 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Clarke
Sheria Akins Clarke is a judge of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. Appointed by President Donald J. Trump, Judge Clarke received a commission on June 18, 2026.
Judge Clarke's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Clarke, as published on the court's website (checked October 9, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
Key rules
Filing
Do not attach proposed orders to motions; email them to Judge Clarke instead.
“do not file proposed orders as attachments to any motions.Any proposed orders should be emailed to [email protected].”
Discovery
Consult opposing counsel and hold a telephone conference with Judge Clarke before filing a discovery motion.
“no motions relating to discovery shall be filed until counsel have consulted and attempted to resolve the matter as required by Local Civil Rule 7.02 and have had a telephone conference with Judge Clarke”
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).
How Judge Clarke decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Primerica, Clarke examined the complaint before entering default judgment against three nonresponding defendants; the decision rested on well-pleaded allegations supporting the requested declaration.
“Primerica’s Complaint contains ‘well-pleaded allegations of fact’ and proper claims such that the Defaulting Defendants admit the allegations in the Complaint.”
Cautions
In Arctic Zero, Clarke dismissed the fourth cause of action with prejudice because the alleged insurance practices could not support a private claim under the asserted state statutes.
“these claims cannot be asserted under SCUTPA or on their own, and are therefore subject to dismissal.”
In McDaniels v. USAA Casualty Insurance Company, Akins Clarke denied leave to add the at-fault driver to an insurance dispute because the proposed negligence claim could not be joined with the claims against the insurer.
“a claim for negligence against the at-fault driver cannot be joined with McDaniels’s existing claims for breach of contract and bad faith against USAA”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Report of the Magistrate Judge and DENIES Plaintiff’s Motion.”
“the Court GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART”
“the Court DENIES Heron Investors’ Motion to Dismiss”
“the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part West Bend’s Motion to Dismiss.”
“Shriners’ Motion to Dismiss [ECF No. 16] is DENIED”
“Motion to Stay [ECF No. 24] is FOUND AS MOOT.”
“the Court DENIES Contender’s Motion to Strike”
The court adopted an unobjected magistrate recommendation and dismissed a habeas action without prejudice because state appellate remedies remained available. This screening disposition was entered without a party motion and is excluded from motion counts.
“Plaintiff’s motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis ECF No. 2 is DENIED.”
“Plaintiff’s Motion for Reconsideration, ECF No. 19, is DENIED.”
“the Court grants the motion to amend”
“FINDS AS MOOT Equifax’s First Motion to Dismiss [ECF No. 9]”
“the Court GRANTS Equifax’s Second Motion”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 62 days (N = 1).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 33.5 days (N = 18).
The fixed-seed sample of ten pending matters included consumer-credit, insurance, telephone-consumer-protection, Social Security, copyright, and other statutory cases.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, not for Judge Clarke: 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 | 2,805 | 7.8 months |
| Closed with no court action | 724 | 5.1 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 2,005 | 8.6 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 64 | 17.9 months |
| Closed during trial | 12 | 36 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 2,805 | 7.8 months |
| Sep 2024 | 5,800 | 12.2 months |
| Sep 2023 | 2,296 | 8.5 months |
| Sep 2022 | 2,364 | 9.8 months |
| Sep 2021 | 2,599 | 10 months |
| Sep 2020 | 2,190 | 10.1 months |
| Sep 2019 | 2,402 | 9.8 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 Clarke with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Clarke, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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