Who appointed Richard A. Lazzara?

President William J. Clinton appointed Richard A. Lazzara to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in 1997.

Was Richard A. Lazzara appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Richard A. Lazzara was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Richard A. Lazzara's confirmation vote?

Richard A. Lazzara was confirmed by voice vote on September 26, 1997. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Middle District of Florida / Appointed 1997 / Senior status since 2011

Richard A. Lazzara

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1997 and confirmed by voice vote, Richard A. Lazzara is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He earned a law degree from University of Florida College of Law (now Fredric G. Levin College of Law) in 1970. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1945 · age 81
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1997
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Loyola New Orleans 1967 · University of Florida College of Law (now Fredric G. Levin College of Law) 1970
Succeeded: John Henry Moore II
Succeeded by: Brian Jordan Davis

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1997	Middle District of Florida succeeded John Henry Moore II	Clinton (D)	Voice vote

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.

Confirmation vote

Voice vote

The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.

Education

Loyola University New Orleans	B.A.	1967
University of Florida College of Law (now Fredric G. Levin College of Law)	J.D.	1970

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Lazzara was assigned 7,022 district-court cases (1983–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 125 days across 7,010 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas28%

Civil rights16%

Contract14%

Labor & ERISA10%

Personal-injury torts9%

Other federal statutes8%

Other15%

Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.

On appeal

Of 304 of Lazzara’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 245 were affirmed, 41 reversed or vacated, and 18 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Lazzara authored 52 published opinions for the court (1998–2011). Most cited: Savage v. Danek Medical, Inc. (16 citations).

A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Recent & notable rulings

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
1999	Savage v. Danek Medical, Inc.	31 F. Supp. 2d 980	16
2009	Richey v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance	608 F. Supp. 2d 1306	12
1999	Alexander v. Danek Medical, Inc.	37 F. Supp. 2d 1346	12
2000	Piven v. Sykes Enterprises, Inc.	137 F. Supp. 2d 1295	9
1999	Hill v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance	72 F. Supp. 2d 1353	9
2004	Lake v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance	320 F. Supp. 2d 1240	8
1998	Smith v. Psychiatric Hospitals of Florida, Inc.	216 B.R. 660	8
2010	SPCP Group, LLC v. Cypress Creek Assisted Living Residence, Inc.	434 B.R. 650	7
2000	Foster v. Pall Aeropower Corp.	111 F. Supp. 2d 1320	7
2000	Hvide Marine Towing, Inc. v. Kimbrell (In Re Hvide Marie Inc.)	248 B.R. 841	7
1998	Hudkins v. Maxim Healthcare Services, Inc.	39 F. Supp. 2d 1349	7
2008	Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania v. Peters	550 F. Supp. 2d 1363	6
2002	Migliaro v. IBM Long-Term Disability Plan	231 F. Supp. 2d 1167	6
2007	Buell v. Direct General Insurance Agency, Inc.	488 F. Supp. 2d 1215	5
2003	Earnest v. Metropolitan Life Insurance	291 F. Supp. 2d 1327	5

Showing the 15 most-cited of 52 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed Richard A. Lazzara?: President William J. Clinton appointed Richard A. Lazzara to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in 1997.
Was Richard A. Lazzara appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Richard A. Lazzara was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Richard A. Lazzara's confirmation vote?: Richard A. Lazzara was confirmed by voice vote on September 26, 1997. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Richard A. Lazzara on?: Richard A. Lazzara is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

28 years on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).