UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY
GENERAL ORDER NO. 2018-01
INRE: 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 50.1 (a), all civil, 1 criminal, and miscellaneous cases filed as of th is 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 Comi' 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 ("er"/, miscellaneous ("me"),
magistrate judge ("mj ") and petty offense ("po") cases.
LOUISVILLE CASES
Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr., Judge Greg N. Stivers, Judge David J. Hale, Judge Rebecca
Grady Jennings, Judge Claria Horn Boom and Senior Judge Charles R. Simpson II 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 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 and Senior Judge Simpson
shall each receive a caseload approximately equal to 50% 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) 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 release is
transferred to the Court pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3605 and another deck is reserved for all other crim inal cases.
Should the assigned Judge recuse in a case, 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 McKinley.
OWENSBORO CASES
Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr. =100%
Should Judge McKinley recuse in a case, it shall be reassigned to Judge Stivers.
PADUCAH CASES
Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell =100%
Should Senior Judge Russell recuse in a case, it shall be reassigned to Judge Stivers.
Should the recusal process outlined in this Order be exhausted, the Chief Judge will determine
reassignment.
MAGISTRATE JUDGE CASE ASSIGNMENT
Civil, Criminal and Miscellaneous Cases
All civil, criminal and miscellaneous cases shall be assigned to a District Judge along with a
designated Magistrate Judge. All Magistrate Judge and petty offense cases shall be assigned to a
Magistrate Judge only. The designation of a Magistrate Judge does not, by itself, constitute a reference
to that Magistrate Judge. Any reference, and the scope thereof, shall be solely within the discretion of
the District Judge to whom the case is assigned.
Upon the filing of any civil, criminal or miscellaneous case, a magistrate judge shall be
assigned to a designated Magistrate Judge as set forth below.
LOUISVILLE CASES
Civil and miscellaneous case designations shall be randomly divided as follows:
Louisville Magistrate Judges= 42% each
Paducah Magistrate Judge= 16%
Criminal case designations 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%
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. § 340 l 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%
This General Order supersedes and vacates General Order 2015-06
IT JS SO ORDERED thi~ay of April, 2018.
E NTERE D
