Local Rule LR 72.2: REVIEW OF MAGISTRATE JUDGE RULINGS

LR 72.2 REVIEW OF MAGISTRATE JUDGE RULINGS

(a) Nondispositive Matters. When a pretrial matter not dispositive of a party's claim or defense is referred to and decided by a magistrate judge, a party may seek review of the magistrate judge's order on the matter as follows:

(1) Objections. A party may file and serve objections to the order within 14 days after being served with a copy, unless the court sets a different deadline. A party may not assign as error a defect in the order not timely objected to.

(2) Response. A party may respond to another party's objections within 14 days after being served with a copy.

(3) Review by District Judge.

(A) Except as provided in LR 72.2(a)(3)(B), the district judge must consider timely objections and modify or set aside any part of the order that is clearly erroneous or is contrary to law.

(B) When a motion to amend a pleading is opposed on grounds of futility and a party seeks review of the magistrate judge's determination of the issue of futility, the district court will review the futility determination de novo.

(C) The district judge may also reconsider on his or her own any matter decided by the magistrate judge but not objected to.

(b) Dispositive Motions and Prisoner Petitions. When, without the parties' consent, a pretrial matter dispositive of a party's claim or defense or a prisoner petition challenging the conditions of confinement is assigned to and heard by a magistrate judge, a party may seek review of the magistrate judge's recommended disposition as follows:

(1) Objections and Transcript. A party may file and serve specific written objections to a magistrate judge's proposed findings and recommendations within 14 days after being served with a copy of the recommended disposition, unless the court sets a different deadline. Unless the district judge orders otherwise, the objecting party must promptly arrange for transcribing the record, or whatever portions of it the parties agree to or the magistrate judge deems sufficient.

(2) Response. A party may respond to another party's objections within 14 days after being served with a copy.

(3) Review by District Judge. The district judge must determine de novo any part of the magistrate judge's disposition that has been properly objected to. The district judge may accept, reject, or modify the recommended disposition; receive further evidence; or return the matter to the magistrate judge with instructions. Ordinarily, the district judge does not conduct a new hearing when ruling on a party's objections, but instead relies on the record of proceedings before the magistrate judge.

(c) Format of Objections and Responses.

(1) Word or Line Limits.

(A) Except with the court's prior permission, objections or a response to objections filed under LR 72.2 must not exceed 3,500 words if set in a proportional font, or 320 lines of text if set in a monospaced font.

(B) All text — including headings, footnotes, and quotations — counts toward these limits, except for:

(i) the caption designation required by LR 5.2;

(ii) the signature-block text; and

(iii) certificates of compliance.

(C) A party who seeks to exceed these limits must first obtain permission to do so by filing and serving a letter of no more than two pages requesting such permission. A party who opposes such a request may file and serve a letter of no more than two pages in response. This rule authorizes the parties to file those letters by ECF.

(2) Type Size.

(A) Represented Parties. Objections or a response to objections filed by a represented party must be typewritten. All text, including footnotes, must be set in at least font size 13 (i.e., a 13-point font) as font sizes are designated in the word-processing software used to prepare the objections or response to objections. Text must be double-spaced, with these exceptions: headings and footnotes may be single-spaced, and quotations more than two lines long may be indented and single-spaced. Pages must be 8 ½ by 11 inches in size, and no text — except for page numbers — may appear outside an area measuring 6 ½ by 9 inches.

(B) Unrepresented Parties. Objections or a response to objections filed by an unrepresented party must be either typewritten and double-spaced or, if handwritten, printed legibly.

(3) Certificate of Compliance. Objections or a response to objections must be accompanied by a certificate executed by the party's attorney, or by an unrepresented party, affirming that the document complies with the limits in LR 72.2(c)(1) and with the type-size limit of LR 72.2(c)(2). The certificate must further state how many words (if set in a proportional font) or how many lines (if set in a monospaced font) the document contains. The person preparing the certificate may rely on the word-count or line-count function of his or her word-processing software only if he or she certifies that the function was applied specifically to include all text, including headings, footnotes, and quotations. The certificate must include the name and version of the word-processing software that was used to generate the word count or line count.

[Adopted effective February 1, 1991; amended May 17, 2004, amended May 16, 2005; amended September 24, 2009; amended December 1, 2009; amended July 23, 2012; amended May 14, 2013; amended September 29, 2022]