Christopher R. Wolfe
How Judge Wolfe rules, drawn from 22 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Wolfe
Christopher Robert Wolfe is a judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. Appointed by President Donald J. Trump, Judge Wolfe received a commission on April 23, 2026.
Judge Wolfe's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Wolfe's own (checked October 8, 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 8, 2026).
- Standing Order Regarding Joint or Unopposed Request to Change Deadlines ↗
- Order Regarding Procedures for the Filing, Service and Management of Highly Sensitive Documents ↗
- General Order Regarding Electronic Filing of Transcripts ↗
- Standing Order Regarding Attorney Admissions and CLE Requirements ↗
- Privacy Policy and Public Access to Electronic Files ↗
- Standing Order Regarding the Electronic Submission of Sealed Civil Documents ↗
How Judge Wolfe decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In the first available revocation order, a complete waiver of objections and a record disclosing no plain error supported prompt adoption of the magistrate judge's recommendation.
“The court, having reviewed the entire record and finding no plain error, accepts and adopts the report and recommendation filed in this cause.”
In a retaliation case, the court adopted the recommendation to grant summary judgment after finding that the employer had shown a legitimate reason for termination supported by its workplace investigation.
“Amazon has demonstrated that there was a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for Burton’s termination”
Procedural preferences
His earliest published criminal orders accept unopposed magistrate-judge recommendations after expressly reviewing the file, allowing guilty pleas and revocation matters to proceed without duplicative district-court hearings where appearance or objections were waived.
“noting no opposition by defendant (1) Jacob Stephens to the Report and Recommendation, the Court enters the following order”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
After reviewing the file and an unopposed magistrate-judge recommendation, the court accepted the defendant's guilty plea to Count One. 'IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the defendant (1) Jacob Stephens' plea of guilty to Count One (1) is accepted.'
After reviewing the file and an unopposed magistrate-judge recommendation, the court accepted the defendant's guilty plea to Count One. 'IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the defendant (1) Allen Glen Steele Jr.'s plea of guilty to Count One (1) is accepted.'
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendant (1) Alejandro Huerta-Luna's term of supervised release is hereby REVOKED.”
After reviewing the file and the unopposed magistrate-judge recommendation, Wolfe accepted the defendant’s guilty plea to Count One. The order contains no separately decided party motion and is excluded from motion statistics.
“It is therefore ordered that Defendant’s Motion to Suppress (Dkt. No. 620) is denied.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff PennyMac’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. No. 19) is GRANTED.”
“Defendants’ Motions for Summary Judgment (Dkt. Nos. 20, 42) are DENIED.”
The court dismissed the case without prejudice for failure to prosecute after adopting an unopposed recommendation. No identified party motion was resolved.
The court dismissed the case without prejudice after the plaintiff failed to complete service forms or respond to a show cause order. No identified party motion was resolved.
“Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. No. 6) is DENIED.”
“State Farm Lloyds’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim (Dkt. No. 5) is GRANTED.”
“Howe’s petition for writ of habeas corpus (Dkt. No. 1) is DENIED without prejudice to refiling with proper documentation.”
“Defendant Amazon’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. No. 13) is GRANTED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
His first Waco Division civil assignments include immigration-detention habeas petitions, prisoner filings, and general civil matters; all sampled civil cases remained pending without a Wolfe merits ruling.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, not for Judge Wolfe: 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 | 3,691 | 7.7 months |
| Closed with no court action | 1,171 | 5.5 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 2,115 | 7.5 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 366 | 14 months |
| Closed during trial | 39 | 30.6 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 3,691 | 7.7 months |
| Sep 2024 | 3,440 | 7.8 months |
| Sep 2023 | 3,823 | 7.2 months |
| Sep 2022 | 3,633 | 8.3 months |
| Sep 2021 | 3,178 | 8 months |
| Sep 2020 | 2,990 | 6.4 months |
| Sep 2019 | 2,854 | 7.1 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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