Referring a motion to a magistrate, as Chief Judge Connolly recently noted, often fails to result in the efficiency gains one might expect, because it "inevitably results in objections to the magistrate judge's report and recommendation which the district court judge must review de novo." Fundamental Innovation Systems Int. LLC v. Lenovo (U.S.), Inc., C.A. No. 20-551-CFC, D.I. 68 (D. Del. Nov. 23, 2021) (referring to SJ motions).
This led me to wonder if objections to report and recommendations should be so common, i.e., do they have any real chance at success? Analyzing the results for objections to R&R's filed in Delaware patent cases in 2021, seems to show that they are, by and large, longshots:
Total Decisions On Objections: 56
Orders Sustaining Objections: 8
Success Rate: 14.3%
Breaking it down a bit further, we see that the rate is about the same for motions reviewed de novo and those reviewed for clear error:
In my (pretty lay) opinion, there's not really enough data points to draw sound conclusions about the relative rates at which our Article III Judges sustain objections to R&R's, but if you're curious, the data is below:
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