Geraldine Soat Brown
Judge Brown no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Brown decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
She is a settlement-and-ADR-oriented magistrate (a longtime AAA arbitrator/mediator before the bench, and Presiding Magistrate Judge 2012-2016) who will enforce a settlement agreement the parties reached and clean up the docket behind it. A party who signs a settlement before her should expect it to be held to.
“For the reasons stated below, Defendants' Motion For Enforcement of Settlement Agreement Dated September 6, 2012 (Defs.' Mot.) [dkt 78] is granted.”
Procedural preferences
On referred discovery she enforces fact-discovery deadlines and disclosure finality: she denied a motion to reopen discovery to depose late-disclosed witnesses, and separately denied leave to supplement an already-served Rule 26(a)(2)(B) expert disclosure. Move to complete expert and fact discovery within the schedule before her rather than expecting to supplement or reopen later.
“For the reasons set out in the following order, Plaintiff's Amended Motion to Reopen Discovery to Allow Depositions of Witnesses Disclosed by Defendants After the Close of Fact Discovery [280] is denied.”
On motions to seal she applies the presumption of public access and grants sealing only narrowly: she allowed a party to redact limited specified portions but otherwise denied the motion and required a public version to be filed. Ask only for the specific redactions you can justify, not wholesale sealing.
“Malibu's motion is granted in part and denied in part.”
Cautions
She scrutinizes a prevailing party's cost bill rather than rubber-stamping it: she sustained the losing plaintiff's objections in part and reduced the defendants' taxed costs. A bill of costs before her should be documented item-by-item, and a non-prevailing party's specific objections can trim it.
“For the foregoing reasons, Gray's objections are granted in part and denied in part, and Defendants' Bill of Costs is reduced to $3,392.30.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the reasons set out below, the motion is granted.”
“Malibu's motion is granted in part and denied in part.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Gray's objections are granted in part and denied in part, and Defendants' Bill of Costs is reduced to $3,392.30.”
“For the reasons stated below, Defendants' Motion For Enforcement of Settlement Agreement Dated September 6, 2012 (Defs.' Mot.) [dkt 78] is granted.”
“Plaintiff's motion to supplement Dr. Milby's expert disclosure is denied.”
“For the reasons set out below, plaintiff Tile Unlimited, Inc.'s Motion to Compel Deposition Under the Federal Rules (Pl.'s Mot.) [dkt 162] is denied without prejudice.”
“For the reasons set out below, the motion is granted in part and denied in part.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Plaintiff's Petition for Fees is granted.”
“For the reasons set out in the following order, Plaintiff's Amended Motion to Reopen Discovery to Allow Depositions of Witnesses Disclosed by Defendants After the Close of Fact Discovery [280] is denied.”
Omnibus order addressing the parties' referred motions in limine before a Section 1983 trial. The overall disposition was 'ruled upon as set out herein' and included granted, denied, and partially granted requests, while Defendants' Motion in Limine No. 1 and Plaintiffs' Motion in Limine No. 11 were reserved. Because the single disposition line does not cleanly identify each individual result, the order is presented as a trial-management example rather than divided into separate motion outcomes.
“For the foregoing reasons, the Commissioner's motion for summary judgment is denied. The case is remanded pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) for further proceedings consistent with this memorandum opinion and order.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiff's Motion to Compel Third Party Deposition Witness Gina Bruhn to Answer Questions [64] is denied.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Brown's enumerable docket under her name is entirely criminal/government miscellaneous matters typical of a magistrate judge on duty (search-warrant applications, parcel/storage-unit/property seizure and forfeiture proceedings), all opened and closed the same day. Her civil reasoning work — referred discovery and pretrial motions, consent dispositions, sealing and settlement-enforcement rulings, fee/cost rulings, and Reports and Recommendations to district judges — is reflected in the published orders above, not in an enumerable assigned-case list. The court bio notes she presided over thousands of civil cases (employment, breach of contract, civil rights, torts, civil RICO) in pretrial and trial stages and mediated settlement conferences in nearly every civil case type.
A historical record
Judge Brown no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.