In United States district courts, there are two types of judges: District Judges and Magistrate Judges. District Judges (also referred to as Article III judges) are appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate and serve for life unless impeached. Magistrate Judges are appointed by the District Judges of the Court to eight-year terms. They may (and often do) serve more than one term.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 73 states that a Magistrate Judge may conduct a civil action, proceeding, trial, or non-jury trial only if all plaintiffs and all defendants consent to have the case decided by a Magistrate Judge. In the District of Oregon, civil cases are regularly assigned to Magistrate Judges.

Parties who consent to Magistrate Judge jurisdiction are likely to proceed to trial more quickly than if the case were assigned to a District Judge. The right to a speedy trial in felony criminal cases requires District Judges to give statutory priority to trying those cases, which can sometimes require that civil trial dates be moved. Unlike District Judges, Magistrate Judges do not preside over felony criminal trials. As a result, their trial dockets are generally less crowded than those of the District Judges, and they usually are able to provide earlier and firmer trial dates than might otherwise be possible for a District Judge.

Effective March 4, 2025, the procedures described in this memo, which are authorized by Standing Order 2025-2, apply to consent in civil cases other than social security cases. Magistrate Judge consent in social security cases is governed by Standing Order 2024-1.

Consent procedures differ depending on whether a case is randomly assigned to a full-time Magistrate Judge, a part-time Magistrate Judge, or a District Judge. As explained below, when all parties consent to Magistrate Judge jurisdiction, (1) if your case was initially assigned to a Magistrate Judge, that judge remains as the presiding judge; and (2) if your case was initially assigned to a District Judge, the case will be randomly reassigned to a Magistrate Judge.

When you file a case, the Court will issue a Case Assignment Order. The first section of the Case Assignment Order states the name and title of the assigned judge. Magistrate Judge Andrew Hallman is the Court’s only part-time Magistrate Judge, so a case assigned to him is assigned to a part-time Magistrate Judge. All other Magistrate Judges are full-time Magistrate Judges.

The Case Assignment Order will also provide information about consenting to the jurisdiction of a Magistrate Judge in your case.

If your case is assigned to a full-time Magistrate Judge, consent to Magistrate Judge jurisdiction is presumed. If you want the Magistrate Judge to decide your case, you do not need to do anything. If you do not want a Magistrate Judge to make the final determination in your case, then you must file a declination of consent form. After all parties have appeared in the case, the court will set a deadline by which the parties must file the form. If no forms are filed by the deadline, the parties are presumed to have knowingly and voluntarily consented to Magistrate Judge jurisdiction.

If your case is assigned to a District Judge, consent is not automatically presumed, and the Court will issue a Consent to Magistrate Judge Jurisdiction form. File this form if you wish to consent to Magistrate Judge jurisdiction in your case. If all parties consent by submitting the form, then the case will be randomly reassigned to a Magistrate Judge.

If your case is assigned to a part-time Magistrate Judge, consent is not automatically presumed, and the Court will issue a Consent to Magistrate Judge Jurisdiction form. File this form if you wish to consent to the jurisdiction of the part-time Magistrate Judge assigned to your case.

If all parties consent to jurisdiction by a Magistrate Judge, then pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 73(b) the Magistrate Judge will have the same jurisdictional authority as a District Judge, including authority to:

• Schedule, hear, and decide all dispositive and non-dispositive matters;
• Schedule, hear, and decide all interlocutory matters;
• Conduct jury or non-jury trials;
• Enter final orders and judgment; and
• Decide all post-trial motions.

When consent to Magistrate Judge jurisdiction results in reassignment of the case from a District Judge to a Magistrate Judge, you will receive a notice from the Court informing you of the Magistrate Judge presiding in your case. The appeal route from any final order or judgment entered by a Magistrate Judge is directly to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. See 28 U.S.C. § 636(c)(3) and Fed. R. Civ. P. 73(c).

In cases assigned to a District Judge, the District Judge will preside over all matters. In cases assigned to a Magistrate Judge, the Magistrate Judge must enter Findings and Recommendations on dispositive matters, and those Findings and Recommendations are reviewed by a District Judge. By consenting to Magistrate Judge jurisdiction, the parties can avoid the delays and expense of this additional review process, while preserving the right of appeal directly to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Once all parties have either filed the consent to Magistrate Judge form, or the deadline to file the declination form has passed and no forms have been filed, the court will add a docket entry stating that there is full consent to Magistrate Judge jurisdiction. Notice of the entry will be sent to all parties.

No. The identity of any party who files a declination form or a consent form will not be communicated to any judge. Withholding or declining consent will not result in any adverse consequences.

The consent procedures outlined above apply to civil cases filed in the U.S. District Court for the District or Oregon, except for appeals from denial of social security benefits, whose consent procedures are governed by Standing Order 2024-1.