Lindsey R. Vaala
How Judge Vaala rules, drawn from 4 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Vaala
Lindsey R. Vaala has served as a United States Magistrate Judge in the Alexandria Division of the Eastern District of Virginia since November 2022. Before joining the court, she clerked for Magistrate Judge Theresa Carroll Buchanan and practiced law with Vinson & Elkins.
Judge Vaala's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Vaala'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).
How Judge Vaala decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On summary judgment, she required evidence that premises defendants actually knew or should have known of the specific hazardous condition; an unrelated prior incident involving another fixture did not establish notice.
“there is no evidence establishing when the allegedly hazardous condition occurred”
When assessing a subpoena for identifying information, she separated defenses to ultimate liability from the Rule 45 grounds for quashing the subpoena.
“they are not grounds for quashing or vacating an otherwise proper subpoena”
In O’Brien v. Wal-Mart, Vaala denied summary judgment because surveillance footage could support a finding that employees should have discovered the spill.
“a reasonable factfinder reviewing the footage could determine that the liquid pooling on the ground should have been discovered by Defendant.”
Procedural preferences
In Sagewater v. Hossfeld, she denied a late amendment because the plaintiff had known the factual basis for the proposed claims for months and had not shown diligence in seeking leave.
“Plaintiff has not exercised the appropriate diligence in seeking leave to amend the complaint to add the proposed claims, the factual basis for which it has known for months.”
She treated Local Civil Rule 56(B)'s admission mechanism as discretionary where a nonmovant's imperfectly formatted response still identified disputed facts and supplied supporting evidence.
“Because Plaintiff's response brief does not strictly comply with Rule 56(B) ... the Court finds that Plaintiff partially complied with Local Civil Rule 56(B). Therefore, the Court will not deem admitted the facts”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“ORDERED that Defendant Transurban (USA) Operations, Inc.'s Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. No. 21) is GRANTED”
“ORDERED that Defendant Knight Facilities Management's Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. No. 22) is GRANTED”
“ORDERED that Defendant's Motion to Quash Subpoena (Dkt. No. 10) is DENIED.”
“the undersigned recommends that the Court DENY Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend the Complaint (Dkt. No. 215).”
“ORDERED that Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. No. 17) is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The enumerated docket is dominated by criminal duty matters; civil outcomes below are limited to matters where the entry or opinion expressly identifies Vaala as the signer.
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 | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 1 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 0 |
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 Eastern District of Virginia, not for Judge Vaala: 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 | 3,011 | 5.6 months |
| Closed with no court action | 1,204 | 5 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 1,299 | 4.9 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 493 | 8.9 months |
| Closed during trial | 15 | 19.3 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 3,011 | 5.6 months |
| Sep 2024 | 2,613 | 5.3 months |
| Sep 2023 | 2,194 | 6.5 months |
| Sep 2022 | 2,134 | 6.8 months |
| Sep 2021 | 2,152 | 6.5 months |
| Sep 2020 | 1,860 | 6 months |
| Sep 2019 | 2,267 | 5.9 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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