NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS TRIAL LAWYERS
EPORT
RVolume 26 No. 3
Hon. Richard Seeborg
Hon. Sallie Kim
Summer 2019
The Advantages
of Choosing a
Magistrate Judge
We believe that, particularly
in the Northern District of
California, consenting to a
magistrate judge for all purposes
to handle all aspects of your case
is a classic “win/win” scenario,
but one that might seem risky to
your clients. In the Northern District of California,
cases are automatically and randomly assigned to
magistrate judges and Article III “District Judges”
alike. Parties then receive a notice and must make a
decision to “consent” to or “decline” the magistrate
judge. A “consent” means that the magistrate judge
will handle the case for all purposes, including
through trial. A declination leads to re-assignment
to a District Judge. While this practice is not the
national norm, as most districts in the U.S. do not
follow this process, it forces lawyers and clients to
make an early decision if their case is assigned to
a magistrate judge. Do you consent or decline?
Here are a few reasons to consent.
First, parties can get to trial faster if a magistrate
judge handles the case. Magistrate judges can set
cases for trial more quickly because they do not
have criminal cases that take priority in scheduling.
Most District Judges set two or even three cases for
each trial date. If the criminal case does not resolve,
the criminal case takes priority over the civil cases
scheduled for the same date. Even if there is no
criminal case pending, the other
civil case scheduled for the same
trial date might take precedence
over another civil trial. Indeed,
District Judges who set only one
case for a trial date can provide
a trial date years from the initial
Case Management Conference.
Magistrate judges do not have as
many trials to schedule, so they
can usually set only one trial for
a particular date, as soon as 18 months away, and
honor that trial date because there are no criminal
cases taking precedence. As one local litigator
commented for this article: “If you choose a
magistrate judge, things go quicker.”
And even if parties do not want cases to go to
trial faster because they think they can prevail on
summary judgment, the date for briefing and hearing
on summary judgment will also be faster than with a
District Judge. District Judges close their calendars
for law and motion hearing dates when there are
too many hearings scheduled for that date, but
magistrate judges rarely have that problem.
This decision, which occurs early in the Northern
District of California, can also take place later. Even
if a party declines to consent to a magistrate judge
or even if the case is initially assigned to a District
Judge, the parties can stipulate to a magistrate
judge for all purposes at any stage in the litigation.
