Policy for Reviewing Amicus Requests

Please direct Amicus Requests to amicus@copaa.org

I. Consideration of requests made of the Amicus Committee.

A. The COPAA Amicus Committee will consider requests that satisfy the following criteria:

1. The issue(s) presented for consideration are consistent with the COPAA mission statement.

2. The issue presented to the court for a decision has a precedent setting value and the decision of the court will materially affect the educational welfare of disabled school age children and/or the substantive or procedural due process rights of their parents.

3. With regard to the subject matter of a request, a sufficient number of COPAA members who have subject matter expertise must be available.

4. The filing of the brief would have a reasonable likelihood of having a persuasive impact on the decision that the court will reach.

5. There are sufficient Committee resources to review the request.

B. The Amicus Committee will follow the following procedures when reviewing a request to participate in an amicus brief:

1. When requesting that COPAA participate in an amicus brief, the organization making the request must provide the COPAA Amicus Committee with the following written information:

(a) the date the notice of appeal has been filed or is anticipated to be filed;
(b) a complete description of the issues on appeal;
(c) a statement outlining the facts of the case;
(d) a brief discussion of the case's procedural history (including the name of the court in which the brief will be filed);
(e) the arguments that the principal brief will make;
(f) why the case is important to disabled school children and their parents;
(g) the name, telephone number, and address of a contact person within the organization making the request ;
(h) the names and contact information of all other organizations that are also being approached to participate in the brief; and
(i) the names of the organizations that may oppose the arguments being made in the brief.

2. The organization making the request must also provide the committee co-chair with a hard copy (and electronic copy, if available) of the decision from the court below that is the subject of the appeal. Furthermore, at the time of the request, the committee must be furnished with a hard copy of each briefs filed by the parties below. In some instances, the committee may ask the requesting organization to make a brief presentation during a scheduled Amicus Committee conference call.

3. All requests for COPAA assistance must be made 60 days prior to the date that the amicus brief is due.

4. If the requesting organization asks COPAA to draft a brief, the organization making the request must provide the information outlined above to the COPAA Amicus committee in writing. Further, the requesting organization must provide the COPAA Amicus Committee with an outline of the arguments that it suggests COPAA make in its amicus brief.

5. In those instances in which a request for COPAA participation or to write an amicus brief arises from an emergency or other time critical situation, the COPAA amicus committee, in its sole discretion, will consider shorter time periods than those specified in paragraphs 3 above.

II. Committee Project Management

A. If, by a majority vote of the committee members, or, if time does not permit, the Committee co-chairs determine that the issue(s) presented by the requesting organization is one in which COPAA should participate as either a participant or as amicus, the committee co-chair(s) will provide the Executive Committee with a recommendation to approve the request. The COPAA Executive Committee must approve the participation of COPAA as amicus.

B. In the event the Executive Committee approves the request, the amicus committee chair(s) shall assign:

1. at least one committee member to serve as the procedural coordinator. The responsibilities of the procedural coordinator will be to procure the appropriate rules of the court, provide the committee with a procedural checklist, and coordinate correspondence between the committee, local counsel, the requesting organization, other participating organizations, and the clerk of the court;

2. at least two committee reviewers whose responsibility will be to receive and to solicit comment upon the substance of the brief as submitted to the reviewers by the drafters of the brief. The committee reviewers will also be responsible to keeping a file of draft revisions and disseminating the revisions as they are submitted to the committee members as the revisions are submitted by the drafters to the reviewers;

3. a COPAA member who is admitted to practice in the circuit in which the appeal arises. The Circuit member will prepare and file the motion to appear as amicus and sign on to the brief. The circuit member is responsible for ensuring that the motion to appear conforms with the requirements of Fed. Rule App. P. 29 and any applicable rules;

4. the circuit member preparing the motion shall also be responsible for contacting opposing counsel(s) to obtain counsel's consent (or lack thereof);

5. each motion to appear must be reviewed by the co-chair of the Amicus Committee, and;

6. a lead drafter, and if feasible, one backup lead drafter. The lead drafter will be responsible for providing the final draft to the committee reviewers no less than fourteen (14) calendar days preceding the date required by the rules of the court for the filing of the brief. In the event the lead drafter is unable to meet the 14 day deadline, the reviewers will make every reasonable effort to accommodate a less than 14 day deadline.

7. The lead drafter must agree to the final production of the brief in his or her
office. The lead drafter shall have final control over, and responsibility for, the final brief, which includes ensuring that the brief meets all of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure and any applicable local rules requirements.

C. Coordination with the requesting organization and other participating organizations.

1. The committee co-chair(s) will notify the requesting organization and other participating organizations of the decision of the Executive Committee.

2. The procedural coordinator assigned to the project will provide the requesting organization and other participating organizations with status reports of the committee's progress on an as needed basis.

D. Disagreements regarding the substance of amicus briefs and statements of interest contained therein.

In the event a disagreement arises that cannot be reasonably resolved by the committee members with regard to the substance of the legal argument and/or the statement of interest of amicus, the co-chair(s) will ask the Executive Committee to appoint at least one attorney member of COPAA to be the final reviewer.

E. Brief Formats

With the exception of certain elements of style and form set forth in the rules of the court, the style and form of the writing shall be at the sole discretion of the drafter(s), and will not be a subject for a final reviewer appointed by the Executive Committee.

Unless otherwise required by the Circuit rules, the type font that will be used for the brief should be decided upon early in the drafting process. After the font is selected, each drafter should use that font during the drafting process.

Before the first draft is begun, the drafters should agree upon the word processing program that will be used throughout the drafting process. This will minimize inadvertent conversion errors and will eliminate wasted time converting documents during the draft exchanges between drafters.

Previous COPAA Amicus Briefs

May 2005: COPAA and 12 other organizations submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court in Schaffer v. Weast (2005). The Schaffer amicus curiae brief is available here (PDF, 39 pgs, 2.3 MB).