Judge Bernardis, Craig De

Not hearing cases: nothing for over two years

Last hearing: October 16, 2007
Next hearing: none scheduled
Last decision: April 12, 2007

Courts worked at: 5

Worked here before

PHILADELPHIA — IMMIGRATION COURT1984—2007 · 12,639 hearings
ATLANTA — IMMIGRATION COURT1980—2004 · 1,335 hearings
ANNANDALE — IMMIGRATION COURT1986—2001 · 5,181 hearings
GUAYNABO — IMMIGRATION COURT1991—1994 · 1,416 hearings
MIAMI — IMMIGRATION COURT1988—1991 · 679 hearings

The periods overlap, and that is not an error: a judge hears cases at a new court while still closing out old ones at the previous one. Each row answers "when did this judge work here", not "from when to when did they serve here".

Status is derived from the court calendar: whether the judge has hearings scheduled after the release cutoff. The EOIR release carries no personnel data, so retirement, removal, elevation to the BIA and extended absence cannot be told apart — only what the data shows is stated here. Hearings are scheduled two to three years out, so an empty calendar for a working judge is rare; for judges who went quiet in the last few months it may still be an artifact of the cutoff, which lags by about a month. The lookup table's "active" flag is not used: it disagrees with the calendar for a third of judges.

35%

Asylum grant rate

of 1,753 decisions · FY1990–FY2007

95% interval: 33% — 37%

granted:: 614
denied:: 1,139

The period has closed

This judge no longer hears cases, so the figure describes FY1990–FY2007 — not what happens in the court today. Asylum rules and the mix of cases have changed since.

How this percentage is calculated

Grant rate = granted / (granted + denied). Administrative closures, withdrawals, abandonment and "not adjudicated" are excluded from the denominator. The unit of count is a decision per proceeding, not per application: applicants almost always file asylum, withholding and CAT protection together. Withholding and CAT grants are counted separately from asylum. U.S. fiscal year: October 1 – September 30.

How this compares

This judge35% (1,753)
The whole court — GUAYNABO — IMMIGRATION COURT40% (1,036)
All U.S. courts33% (1,350,724)

This comparison does not adjust for which cases a judge was given: judges see different nationalities, different shares of detained respondents, and different rates of legal representation. A difference in percentages does not by itself mean identical cases were treated differently.

Trend by fiscal year

U.S. fiscal year: October 1 – September 30.

Show as a table

Grant rate by fiscal year
Period	decisions	granted	95% interval
FY2002	14	29%	12% — 55%
FY2001	236	49%	43% — 55%
FY2000	169	40%	33% — 48%
FY1999	147	35%	27% — 43%
FY1998	257	42%	36% — 48%
FY1997	227	36%	30% — 42%
FY1996	191	43%	36% — 50%
FY1995	154	19%	14% — 26%
FY1994	106	19%	13% — 27%
FY1993	95	14%	8% — 22%
FY1992	96	18%	11% — 27%
FY1991	61	39%	28% — 52%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationality	decisions	granted	95% interval
GUATEMALA	213	4%	2% — 8%
EL SALVADOR	153	8%	5% — 14%
CHINA	153	45%	37% — 53%
LIBERIA	119	71%	62% — 78%
ETHIOPIA	80	48%	37% — 58%
RUSSIA	63	54%	42% — 66%
PAKISTAN	52	62%	48% — 74%
AFGHANISTAN	46	61%	46% — 74%
HONDURAS	45	11%	5% — 23%
ALBANIA	44	27%	16% — 42%
PERU	38	18%	9% — 33%
INDIA	38	3%	0% — 13%
UKRAINE	37	51%	36% — 67%
NICARAGUA	35	34%	21% — 51%
ROMANIA	35	9%	3% — 22%

How long a case takes

How long it took from service of the NTA to the decision on the application, for the cases this judge has already finished.

13 mo

median

half of cases: 8—19 mo

based on 1,753 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided in	Cases	median	half of cases, mo
FY2001	236	13 mo	9—26
FY2000	169	16 mo	7—24
FY1999	147	15 mo	12—20
FY1998	257	13 mo	8—19
FY1997	227	13 mo	7—17
FY1996	191	10 mo	5—15
FY1995	154	14 mo	12—18
FY1994	106	14 mo	11—18
FY1993	95	9 mo	3—17
FY1992	96	14 mo	10—19

Duration runs from the NTA date (charging document served) to the decision on the application. Median, not mean: the distribution has a long right tail. Cases decided this year may have begun a decade ago, so duration by year of decision is not a forecast for a case filed today.

The queue

Cases with no decision yet. A different figure from the duration of completed cases: quick cases leave the queue first, so the long ones accumulate among those still waiting.

No undecided cases in this release.

What became of appeals to the BIA

An immigration judge's decision can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals. This is what the Board did with those appeals. A high share of reversals and remands tells a different story than a low grant rate alone.

What became of appeals to the BIA
BIA decision	Appeals
Remand	352
Dismiss Appeal/Affirm IJ's Decision	344
Dismissed (Grant V/D 30 days)	273
Denied	228
SUMMARY AFFIRMANCE/VD	119
Granted	101
Summary Affirmance	95
Withdrawal of Appeal	82
Sustain	66
Other	49
Deferred Enforced Departure	29
Temporary Protected Status	24
Lacks Jurisdiction - BIA	22
Termination	22
Dismiss Soriano	21
Dismiss as Untimely	19
Summarily Dismiss	18
Continued	10
Grant with no Remand	9
Summary Dismissal (e) no brief	8
Rejection	6
Coercive Population Control	4
Summary Dismissal (a) inad reason on appeal	3
Dismissed (Voluntary Departure Granted)	2
Terminate-DHS PD	2
SUMMARY DISMISSAL - BOTH (a) & (e)	2
Summary Dismissal (o) Other	2
Other Soriano	1
Granted Soriano	1

Data comes from the monthly EOIR Case Data release (U.S. DOJ FOIA Library). This service is not affiliated with the U.S. government and does not provide legal advice. The data lags by roughly a month; for current case status use ACIS and Respondent Access. The source is known to have missing records, including relief applications — absent data does not mean it is absent from your case.