Eva J. Dossier

Judge Eva J. Dossier

United States Magistrate Judge, Eastern District of Louisiana

Eva J. Dossier is a United States Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. She was selected by the district judges in September 2023 and took the oath of office on April 11, 2024. Prior to her appointment, Judge Dossier was a member at the New Orleans firm Stanley, Reuter, Thornton & Alford, where her practice focused on commercial litigation, as well as legal ethics and professional responsibility matters. She also served as an adjunct professor at Tulane Law School, teaching a course on written discovery. Judge Dossier previously clerked for Judge Lance M. Africk of the Eastern District of Louisiana and for Judge James B. Loken of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

As Judge Dossier is new to the bench, she has a very limited record of patent litigation. Her patent docket is still developing, and there is not yet a public record of her approach to claim construction or management of patent-specific issues. The Eastern District of Louisiana is not a traditional high-volume patent venue, and it has not adopted specific local patent rules. Litigants can expect that proceedings will be governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the court's general local civil rules.

Given her recent appointment, there are no notable patent rulings or established trends from Judge Dossier’s chambers. The single patent case in which she is listed as a presiding judge, Rare Breed Triggers Inc et al. v. Canuck Tactical LLC, was recently filed. Her prior experience in complex commercial litigation and her academic focus on discovery practice suggest a thorough and detail-oriented approach to case management. In a "Meet the Judges" CLE event in April 2024, she indicated that for basic discovery disputes, parties should consider requesting a telephone conference before filing formal motions, a practice that could efficiently resolve issues common in patent discovery.

Judge Dossier’s individual procedures page on the court’s website outlines general practices for all civil cases before her. It states that motions to compel must be filed and resolved before the discovery deadline and reiterates the requirement under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a)(1) for a "meet and confer" certification. The page specifies that counsel should confer in person, by video, or by telephone, and that email exchanges are not sufficient. Parties requesting expedited consideration of any matter are instructed to email a courtesy copy of the motion to her chambers and to call to provide notice. No specific standing orders for patent cases have been issued.