Filing and Service

The Supreme Court Press handles the complete filing and service of your briefs directly from the printing press. We lovingly pack 40 bound books for the Supreme Court, along with the signed Certificate of Service and Certificate of Word Count, signed by the Supreme Court Press. As long as your document meets the word count requirements, we will sign the certificate of compliance. In addition, we issue the filing fee check to the court with our own checkbook, and simply add the total to your invoice.

The rules of the Supreme Court also require the service of three books to the counsel of record for each party. Note, you do not have to serve every attorney and many clients have multiple attorneys. Your responsibility is simply to the counsel of record for that party. For federal government parties (e.g. United States of America, the Attorney General, or the head of a federal agency), service is upon the Solicitor General of the United States, unless the party is involved in an individual capacity. In addition to a physical filing requirement, the Supreme Court has implemented an electronic service requirement, which we also take care of.

As your filing progresses through our printing press, and onwards into the delivery van, we keep you apprised of the progress along the way. On your filing day, through email updates to you, we will post you on the status of your filing. Finally, when you receive the magic words by email “Document Filing Complete,” your filing is done.

The Supreme Court marks the timing of your filing by the date of the postmark, not by the date of the arrival of the documents. It is wise to ship by United States Postal Service because the rules of the Supreme Court put the USPS postmark in a safe harbor. Although we can ship by Federal Express if a client has a distinct preference, you should note that FedEx is treated differently under the courts rules in a less preferred position.

The Supreme Court has taken a number of additional security measures in recent years. Among them, every incoming package must now enter a three-day quarantine, so that they can test packages for biological contamination such as anthrax. That means that there is a delay of several days between when a document is filed and when it appears on the Supreme Court docket. However, with a USPS postmark, your filing date has been frozen on the sending date. Because of the electronic filing requirement noted above, other parties to the case will not have to wait until a brief is officially docketed before having the ability to review it.

You can always check the status of the Supreme Court docket at http://www.supremcourt.gov and going to the search box in the upper right corner, pressing the radio button that says docket search, and then entering either the case number or the party name.

After a Petition for Writ of Certiorari has been filed, the Supreme Court will send you a docketing notice by mail. That notice will also include a waiver form that you should mail to the respondents in the case. The form allows the respondent to notify the court that they intended to waive their right to respond to the petition.

Note: The Supreme Court Press does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. If you need legal advice on a specific matter, please contact a lawyer. The Supreme Court Press Does not calculate legal deadlines. It is the client’s sole responsibility to manage and meet their deadlines.