Wilkins v. University of Wyoming: an individual suit, dismissed

Case summary

Wilkins v. University of Wyoming is a federal employment suit brought by one person, JL Wilkins, against the University of Wyoming and several of its officers. It was filed on 19 September 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming and carries docket number 2:22-cv-00204. As of the docket retrieved on 23 Oct 2026 the case is closed: the court dismissed it with prejudice on 18 August 2023.

It is not a class action. A reader looking for a class to join, a claim form or a settlement deadline will not find one here, because the case never sought to represent a group.

Parties and claims

The docket header lists the plaintiff as JL Wilkins. The defendants are the University of Wyoming and four university office holders listed by title: the university president, the interim vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, the vice president for research and economic development, and the director of the Wyoming Technology Transfer and Research Products Center. The cause of action on the docket is 42 U.S.C. 1983, classified as civil rights employment discrimination, and the plaintiff demanded a jury.

That is all this entry says about the substance. The complaint is an advocacy document written by one side, and this page does not repeat its narrative.

How the case moved

The first entries are routine. The complaint is entry 1 on 19 September 2022, and a notice of judge assignment follows the next day. Waivers of service were returned on 11 October 2022, which gave the defendants until 21 November 2022 to respond. On that date the university's counsel appeared and filed a motion to dismiss with a supporting memorandum (entries 5 and 6). The plaintiff opposed it on 5 December 2022 and the university replied on 12 December.

Judge Freudenthal ruled on the motion on 19 December 2022 (entry 10). The entry is titled an order on motion to dismiss; the text of the ruling was not retrieved, so this page does not say which way it went. What the docket does show is the next step: on 3 January 2023 the University of Wyoming filed its answer with affirmative defenses (entry 11), which means the case continued past the pleading stage in some form.

Both sides then called the case non-complex. A joint case management plan was filed on 15 February 2023 and the initial pretrial order issued on 1 March 2023 (entry 16). That order set expert designations for June and July 2023, a motions deadline in September 2023 and a dispositive motions hearing for 26 October 2023.

On 12 June 2023 the parties stipulated to an extension, and on 15 June the court granted it. Discovery was due by 31 August 2023 and the motions deadline moved to 21 September 2023. A status conference was reset for 29 August 2023.

Dismissal

On 17 August 2023 the plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal (entry 20). The next day Judge Freudenthal entered an order dismissing the case with prejudice, with each party paying its own costs (entry 21). Dismissal with prejudice means the same claims cannot be filed again in that court.

The record retrieved does not say why the plaintiff dismissed. Parties often end a case after an agreement, but a voluntary dismissal does not itself prove one, and the terms of any private agreement would not appear on a public docket unless filed. This page therefore states no settlement and no amount.

What this means for readers looking for a class action

People who land on a case page like this one are often searching for a refund or a group claim. An individual suit does not create that. Only a case certified as a class, or a settlement with an administrator and a notice, opens a claim process. Readers can check whether the University of Wyoming faces any such group case by searching the court dockets directly; this tracker lists none under that name.

The last entry retrieved is the dismissal order of 18 August 2023, number 21. Nothing later is recorded, and no appeal appears.