Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
How Judge Kollar-Kotelly decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
She freely grants leave to amend where it serves justice and will deny a pending dispositive motion as moot rather than rule on a complaint about to be superseded.
“the Court shall GRANT the Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend and DENY AS MOOT the Defendant's Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings or, in the Alternative, for Summary Judgment.”
In IDEA cases she will use a preliminary injunction to preserve a disabled student's existing publicly funded placement pending review (the 'stay-put' protection), siding with the family over the District.
“the Court shall GRANT the Plaintiffs' Motion and DENY the Defendant's Cross-Motion.”
Procedural preferences
On an unopposed dispositive motion she follows the local-rule practice: she warns the non-movant (especially a pro se party), extends the deadline, and if nothing is filed treats the motion as conceded and enters judgment.
“The Court will treat the defendant's motion as conceded and will enter judgment in the defendant's favor.”
She enforces Rule 15 amendment procedure strictly: a plaintiff who files an amended complaint without leave after a dismissal will have it stricken, and nunc pro tunc leave is denied where the amendment is procedurally foreclosed.
“the Court shall GRANT Defendants' [20] Motion to Strike the Amended Complaint and Dismiss the Action with Prejudice and DENY Plaintiff's [21] Motion for Leave to File an Amended Complaint Nunc Pro Tunc.”
Cautions
She enforces claim preclusion: a plaintiff cannot refile, in a new suit, claims arising from the same events that she already dismissed in a prior case (affirmed on appeal).
“Upon consideration of the briefing, the relevant legal authorities, and the entire record, the Court shall GRANT the Motion to Dismiss.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the Court shall GRANT the Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend and DENY AS MOOT the Defendant's Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings or, in the Alternative, for Summary Judgment.”
“the Court shall GRANT the Plaintiffs' Motion and DENY the Defendant's Cross-Motion.”
“the Court shall GRANT Defendant's [14] Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment and DENY Plaintiff's [10] Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings.”
“The Court will treat the defendant's motion as conceded and will enter judgment in the defendant's favor.”
“the Court shall GRANT Defendants' [20] Motion to Strike the Amended Complaint and Dismiss the Action with Prejudice and DENY Plaintiff's [21] Motion for Leave to File an Amended Complaint Nunc Pro Tunc.”
“Pending is Defendant's Motion to Dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. For the following reasons, the motion will be granted.”
“Upon consideration of the briefing, the relevant legal authorities, and the entire record, the Court shall GRANT the Motion to Dismiss.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Sampled recent assignments (filed 2026, all pending) are heavy on FOIA (895 -- Defending Rights & Dissent v. State, FIRE v. DHS, Judicial Watch v. DHS, Williams v. DoD), ANTITRUST (410 -- United States v. Taiheiyo Cement Corp.; she also has the In re Domestic Airline Travel Antitrust MDL and historically United States v. Microsoft), IMMIGRATION (465 -- Saeed/Chuang/Cai v. Mullin), APA/agency review (899), ERISA (791 -- IAM National Pension Fund v. Darling Ingredients), copyright (Strike 3 Holdings), and arbitration (896). This is a qualitative character sample, NOT a counted nature-of-suit distribution.
Put Judge Kollar-Kotelly's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Kollar-Kotelly actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Kollar-Kotelly's own signed orders and cites them.