Paul Kohler
How Judge Kohler decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
Enforces discovery obligations and the filing-fee/IFP gate firmly: recommends Rule 37 default-judgment sanctions for parties who repeatedly ignore discovery orders, and recommends dismissal plus restricted-filer designations for litigants who refuse to pay the fee or seek IFP and have a history of abusive filings.
“The Report and Recommendation recommended default judgment against Gifford and the dismissal of Gifford's counterclaims. ... based on his failures to properly participate, provide relevant discovery, or comply with court orders.”
Cautions
Applies Twombly/Iqbal plausibility rigorously on 12(b)(6) R&Rs and gives full effect to prior settlement agreements that waive future claims -- recommending dismissal WITH prejudice where amendment would not cure the bar (Desai). On no-objection waiver he applies the Tenth Circuit firm-waiver rule strictly.
“Judge Kohler correctly determined that the Amended Complaint provides only conclusory allegations without any supporting facts to state a plausible claim.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Motions to dismiss N = 2 |
Granted: 2 | counts only |
| Screening dismissal N = 2 |
Granted: 2 | counts only |
| Default judgment N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“The Report and Recommendation issued by United States Magistrate Judge Paul Kohler on August 13, 2024 recommends that Defendants' Motion to Dismiss be granted and the case be dismissed with prejudice. ... the Report and Recommendation is ADOPTED in its entirety and this case is DISMISSED with prejudice.”
“On September 26, 2025, Magistrate Judge Paul Kohler filed a Report & Recommendation ('R & R') recommending granting the Motions to Dismiss filed by Defendants Darin Adams and Matthew Topham, and Chad Dotson, respectively. ... With no objections, the R & R was adopted in full.”
“The Report and Recommendation recommended default judgment against Gifford and the dismissal of Gifford's counterclaims. ... The Report and Recommendation was adopted and default judgment was entered against Gifford based on his failures to properly participate, provide relevant discovery, or comply with court orders.”
“Judge Kohler, seeing no response to the previous order, issued a Report and Recommendation concluding that this action should be dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. ... the Court hereby ADOPTS the Report and Recommendation (ECF No. 10) and DISMISSES Plaintiff's complaint and this action.”
“recommending this action be dismissed because Plaintiff Milan Michael Kotevski has refused to pay a filing fee, or seek and obtain leave to proceed in forma pauperis under 28 U.S.C. 1915. Judge Kohler also recommends the Court impose filing restrictions ... the Court overrules Mr. Kotevski's objections and adopts the recommendation ... ADOPTS the Report and Recommendation (ECF No. 21) and DISMISSES Plaintiff's action”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Southern Region / St. George magistrate (half-time 2019, full-time 2022). Enumerable assigned_judge slice (2026 pending) is the division's civil mix where he is the assigned magistrate: insurance, employment/job-discrimination (eBay), Magnuson-Moss warranty, 1983 civil rights (Town of Leeds), diversity contract -- plus criminal warrant-application (mj) matters reflecting his criminal-duty role. His referral merits R&Rs (MTD, screening dismissals, Rule 37 sanctions) are reviewed by the district judges and appear in the reasoning layer. Composition only; not a grant rate.