FILED
in the Middle District of
North Carolina
May 21, 2020
4/5/2024
10:00
2:29 a.m.
pm
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT Clerk, US District Court
By: __________
KM
JSB
FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
JUDGE ASSIGNMENTS IN THE )
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF NORTH ) STANDING ORDER NO. 21
CAROLINA )
This Order memorializes long-standing practices in this district for assigning cases
to judges.
Civil and criminal cases are assigned with the goals of equitably distributing the
workload of the Court and of avoiding judge shopping. Individual case assignments are
not made by courthouse location, judicial interest, or judicial expertise.
The Clerk assigns civil cases pursuant to a detailed internal written plan approved
by the Court and modified as needed from time to time. The Clerk assigns cases in
sequential order using a list of all judges, within case categories that take into account the
degree of complexity usually involved. The case rotation list may be modified for senior
and chief judges, who may elect to have a reduced case load, and for case-specific
management reasons. The Court has a strict system to check for conflicts of interest,
which may result in a case assignment out of rotational order, and cases may be
reassigned when appropriate to avoid a conflict of interest developing after assignment.
The Clerk manages such situations over time to ensure generally even assignment of
cases within categories. To avoid judge shopping, the detailed internal plan is not public.
Standing Order 30 governs assignments of civil cases to magistrate judges.
For criminal cases, judges are assigned to monthly criminal terms rotated among
judges, usually set by the Court annually and modified as needed from time to time.
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