Frequently Asked Questions

A. First, there is no page count limitation for Supreme Court submissions, instead there is a word limit that varies by the type of document – more for a Petition for Certiorari, less for an Amicus Brief. Second, you must use a font in the Century family, e.g., Century Schoolbook, New Century Schoolbook (but not Century Gothic), etc. You may not use the default Times New Roman. And the point size must be 12 points for the body and 10 points for footnotes. The most significant difference is the booklet style the Court requires, using heavier weight paper cut to a specific size. There are other, less obvious requirements as well.

A. No, in fact you must not double-space it. Many people put an extra space between paragraphs for aesthetics and ease of reading but otherwise your Brief must be single-spaced.

A. 'fraid not. The Court's word-count limitations are intended to ensure that Briefs cannot avoid the limits on arguments. The 9,000 word limit for a Cert. Petition translates roughly to 35-40 pages for the argument. This does not include the cover, Table of Contents, Table of Authorities, Appendix, and several other items. See Rule 33(1)(d).

A. Generally, you need only count the words in your actual argument, including footnotes, but not the Appendix, Table of Contents, Table of Authorities or other supplemental pages. Rule 33(1)(d) specifies which parts of your document must be included in the word count.

A. Both Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect are able to count the words for you although they do it differently. In Word, be sure the check the box counting footnotes, WordPerfect does this automatically. Contact us and we can walk you through the process.

A. No, but along with the filing and the Affidavit of Service, each Brief must also have a Certificate of Word Count Compliance signed by an attorney admitted to practice before the Supreme Court or signed and notarized by someone else involved in the preparation of the Brief. At Legal Printers LLC we create and execute both the Affidavit of Service and the Certificate of Word Count Compliance for every filing.

A. No, in fact they must not be. They are separate documents that are filed along with copies of the Brief.

A. The only Briefs that need not meet the formatting requirements are those filed in forma pauperis. If you wish to file in forma pauperis, you must receive approval from the Court to do so. All other Briefs and petitions, including capital cases and pro se filings must abide by the formatting requirements.

A. Leading (rhymes with heading) is a carry-over from old-style molten lead typesetting. Use the default single-spacing option in your word processing software, but you can add space between paragraphs.

A. Except for those filed in forma pauperis, yes. If you filed a Cert. Petition with the Court that was rejected for form, the Court will likely have kept your fee and you will not have to pay a second time. But for all other cases, including capital cases and pro se filings, the fee to the Court is required.

A. The first thing to do is make sure of the new date by which you need to file, it is generally 60 days from the date on the rejection letter. Then, contact Legal Printers LLC so we can tell you what documents and files you need to send us so to ensure your refiled Petition meets the Court's requirements.

A. The Court requires that you include the orders and opinions from which you're appealing, i.e., the lower court opinions. After that it's largely a legal judgment that is up to you. Many people elect to include portions of contracts or portions of transcripts but these are optional. You must not include any additional arguments in the Appendix. See Rules 14 and 34.

A. Yes. The appendix documents must generally be in reverse chronological order starting with the most recent opinions and continuing backward in time, except that the final Denial should be the last order. After that come other documents such as contracts, statutes or transcripts.

A. No, the Court will reject your Brief. All appendices (except patent documents) must be in the same format as the rest of the Brief, that is, using the same fonts, point sizes and margins. So if you have the materials electronically you must reformat them to match your Brief but if you only have hard copies they must be scanned, run through an optical character recognition program, corrected and then formatted, so start now.