Friday, October 26, 2007
Page 3
LACBA Adopts Revised Guidelines for Filing Amicus Briefs
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Los Angeles County Bar Association Board of Trustees has adopted revised guidelines for filing or participating in amicus briefs.
The board voted to adopt the revised guidelines unanimously and without abstention during its meeting Wednesday evening.
Amicus Brief Committee Chair Richard A. Rothschild told the board during the meeting that the revised guidelines would not change any of the criteria for filing or participating in amicus briefs, but that they would streamline the association’s stated procedures in order to match what has been the actual practice for many years.
He also said that the revised guidelines were proposed in order to clarify procedures for both those seeking amicus briefs, and the chair of the Amicus Briefs Committee.
The revised guidelines state that the association can only appear as an amicus if the board grants approval. The board, however, may act on all such matters through its Executive Committee.
Although the revised guidelines reiterate that requests to file or participate in an amicus brief should ordinarily be put before the Amicus Briefs Committee, the board may now also approve, deny or otherwise deal with any such request on its own.
They also grant individual sections and committees a limited ability to file or participate in amicus briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, or the California Supreme Court. Sections or committees may now engage in such actions, provided they first obtain the board’s affirmative approval.
Sections and committees remain free to file or participate in amicus briefs before the California Court of Appeal, superior courts or administrative proceedings, but must still obtain leave of the association president, who may also submit the matter to the board or the Amicus Briefs Committee.
The board announced that it will distribute copies of the revised guidelines to individual sections and committees, and that the revised guidelines will also be posted on the association’s website under its section resource page.
Copyright 2007, Metropolitan News Company