UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY
GENERAL ORDER NO. 2020-27
IN RE: CASE ASSIGNMENT AND REASSIGNMENT DUE TO RECUSALS
By unanimous agreement of the judges of this Court and pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 137,
LR 40. l (a) and LCrR 50.l(a), all civil, criminal, and miscellaneous cases filed as of this date
shall be assigned, or reassigned due to recusal, in accordance with this general order.
The goal of this general order is to provide a system for assigning the Court's cases
among its judges in a manner that ensures an approximately equal distribution of newly filed
cases to each of the active judges, and a percentage to whichever of the senior judges elects to
take a lower distribution. This order does not vest any rights in litigants or members of the bar
and is adopted for the internal management of the Court's case load.
DISTRICT JUDGE CASE ASSIGNMENT
Pursuant to LR 3.2 and LCrR 18.2, all cases commenced in or transferred to the Court shall
be assigned to an individual jury division, each of which contains an electronic deck of case
assignment cards. These case assignment cards, in turn, contain the name(s) of the Judge or Judges
who draw cases from that division in the percentages set forth herein.
Once a case is assigned to a division, it will receive a case number. A separate sequence of
case numbers is maintained for each division's civil ("cv"), criminal ("cr")2, miscellaneous ("mc"),
magistrate judge ("mj") and petty offense ("po") cases.
LOUISVILLE CASES
Judge Greg N. Stivers, Judge David J. Hale, Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, Judge Claria
Horn Boom, Judge Benjamin Beaton, and Senior Judge Charles R. Simpson III shall each
draw civil, criminal and miscellaneous cases assigned to the Louisville division. The case
assignment cards comprising the Louisville case assignment deck shall be electronically
shuffled so that the sequence will be random and the cards shall be concealed such that the
name of the Judge will not be known until the card is drawn.
In order to equalize the distribution of the newly filed cases among the judges in active
service throughout the district, the number of cards each judge draws from the case
assignment deck will vary based on the number of cases assigned to each Judge from the
other jury divisions, if any. Judge Boom shall receive new case assignments approximately
equal to 50% of the number of cases assigned to an active judge and Senior Judge Simpson
shall receive new case assignments approximately equal to 25% of the number of cases
assigned to an active judge.
1 This General Order does not address the assignment of death penalty cases or cases in which a plaintiff seeks
review, pursuant to 42 U.S. C. § 405(g), of a decision by the Commissioner of Social Security as these case types are
assigned pursuant to separate general orders.
2 The Court maintains two (2) separate criminal case assignment decks, both of which contain the same proportions of
case assignment cards. One deck is reserved for criminal cases in which the jurisdiction of a probationer or supervised
releasee is transferred to the Court pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3605, and another deck is reserved for all other criminal
cases. A case assigned from one deck shall not impact the number of cases to be assigned from the other deck.
Should the Judge assigned to the case recuse, the case shall be randomly reassigned
to another Judge who draws cases from the Louisville division.
BOWLING GREEN CASES
Judge Greg N. Stivers = 100%
Should Judge Stivers recuse in a case, it shall be reassigned to Judge Beaton.
OWENSBORO CASES
Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr. =100%
Should Judge McKinley recuse in a case, it shall be reassigned to Judge Beaton.
PADUCAH CASES
Paducah Civil Cases
Judge Benjamin Beaton =20%
Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell =80%
Paducah Criminal Cases
Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell =100%
Should Judge Beaton recuse in a case, it shall be reassigned to Judge Russell. Should
Senior Judge Russell recuse in a case, it shall be reassigned to Judge Beaton.
Should the recusal process outlined in this Order be exhausted, the Chief Judge will
determine reassignment.
MAGISTRATE JUDGE CASE REFERALS AND ASSIGNMENT
Civil, Criminal and Miscellaneous Cases
A District Judge may refer a matter to a Magistrate Judge either directly or by way of
a Magistrate Judge referral deck. The Magistrate Judge referral deck for civil, criminal and
miscellaneous cases shall include Magistrate Judge cards that are apportioned among the
Magistrate Judges as set forth below. The decks will be periodically adjusted to reflect all
referrals made to the Magistrate judges, whether through the referral deck or directly.
LOUISVILLE CASES
Civil and miscellaneous case referrals shall be randomly divided as follows:
Louisville Magistrate Judges =42% each
Paducah Magistrate Judge =16%
Criminal case referrals shall be randomly, but evenly, divided among the Louisville
Magistrate Judges.
BOWLING GREEN CASES
Bowling Green Magistrate Judge =100%
OWENSBORO CASES
Bowling Green Magistrate Judge =100%
PADUCAH CASES
Paducah Magistrate Judge =100%
Any reference, and the scope thereof, whether made directly or through the
Magistrate Judge referral deck, shall be solely within the discretion of the District Judge to
whom the case is assigned.
Misdemeanor Cases
Upon the filing of an information, complaint or violation notice, or the return of an
indictment, all misdemeanor cases shall generally be assigned to a Magistrate Judge who shall
proceed in accordance with the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 340l and Fed. R. Crim. P. 58. Such
cases shall be assigned to an individual jury division at which time it will receive either an "mj"
case number if it involves a Class A misdemeanor or "po" case number if it involves a Class B
misdemeanor. Such cases are to be assigned to a Magistrate Judge as follows:
LOUISVILLE CASES, INCLUDING FT. KNOX CASES
Whichever Louisville Magistrate Judge has designated criminal duty at the time of filing.
BOWLING GREEN CASES
Bowling Green Magistrate Judge= 100%
OWENSBORO CASES
Bowling Green Magistrate Judge= 100%
PADUCAH CASES, INCLUDING FT. CAMPBELL CASES
Paducah Magistrate Judge= 100%
Habeas Cases
Habeas cases1 shall be referred to the magistrate judges on a proportionate basis as
determined by the District Judges, giving due consideration to the existing caseload. Such
referrals may be made directly or through the use of Magistrate Judge referral decks. One referral
deck shall exist for cases filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241 or 2254 and another referral deck
shall exist for cases filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255. These decks shall include Magistrate
Judge cards that are apportioned among the Magistrate Judges as set forth below.
LOUISVILLE CASES
All Magistrate Judges shall draw referrals from habeas cases assigned to the Louisville
division. The case assignment cards comprising both Louisville habeas case referral decks shall
be electronically shuffled so that the sequence will be random. The number of cards each
Magistrate Judge draws from the referral deck will vary based on the number of habeas cases
referred to each Magistrate Judge from the other divisions, if any.
BOWLING GREEN CASES
Bowling Green Magistrate Judge= 100%
OWENSBORO CASES ENTERED
VANESSA L ARMSTRONG, CLERK
Bowling Green Magistrate Judge= 100%
Dec 08, 2020
PADUCAH CASES
U.S. DISTRICT COURT
Paducah Magistrate Judge= 100% WESTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY
Transfers
Transfers between Magistrate Judges to equalize dockets and for other appropriate
reasons shall be entered from time to time upon concurrence of both the transferee and transferor
judges.
This General Order supersedes and vacates General Order 20-17.
DATED: December 8, 2020
1
Any habeas corpus petition filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 by a petitioner under a sentence of death, and any
civil action filed by a plaintiff under a sentence of death challenging the manner or method of execution, shall be
assigned and referred pursuant to GO 2012-06.
