Distributing Cases in W.D.Tex.

On July 25, 2022, W.D.Tex. Chief Judge Garcia issued a unique order regarding assignment patent cases filed in Waco Texas federal court.  Prior to that order, all Waco cases were assigned to Judge Albright.  Many accused infringers complained that Albright was taking cases to trial to quickly and after some political pressure Judge Garcia issued this new order that going forward any patent actions filed in Waco will be distributed randomly to one of twelve W.D.Tex. Judges.

Since that date, 234 patent cases have been filed in W.D.Tex.  One surprise from looking at the judicial assignments — about 1/3 of these new cases have been assigned to Judge Albright. It appears that the court may be making an exception to the rule when new cases are closely related to already pending cases, but I have not seen any public statement on that front.  Of the other 11 judges, all have received at least one new case, with most having 9-11 patent cases to handle.  The new randomness appears to also create a delay in case assignment.  About 25% of the cases have not yet been assigned to any judge — most of these are cases filed in October.