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Information Package For Pro Se Appellants - Official Federal Forms
| Information Package For Pro Se Appellants Form. This is a national form and can be used in 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals Circuit Court Of Appeals . |
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UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT Office of the Clerk INFORMATION PACKAGE FOR PRO SE APPELLANTS (MAY 2006) This information packet has been prepared by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to assist you in presenting your appeal to the Judges of this court. Please read ALL of the information carefully before you prepare your case. You must keep a copy of all documents you send to this court for your personal records. Your appeal has been assigned a Court of Appeals docket number. You must include this number on all of the correspondence you send to this court and to the other side. If you move or your mailing address changes, you must notify this court in writing immediately. If you do not, you could miss important papers from this court notifying you of deadlines or decisions. If you do not notify us of your address changes and you miss a filing deadline as a result, your appeal could be dismissed without further notice. When filing documents, you must use paper and ink that will be legible when they arrive here for filing. Therefore, do not use tissue paper. If we can't read the documents, they will not be processed. Revised May 2006 Your Appeal A Checklist American LegalNet, Inc. www.USCourtForms.com _____ Court Clerk assigns you a docket number and sends you this package of information. You must include this docket number on anything you send to the Court!! In this package, you will find: ___ A Time Schedule Order - This tells you when certain papers are due. It is VERY important. A Sample Certificate of Service. You MUST send a copy of ALL documents that you file with this court to counsel for the opponent, if any, and you must include a statement to this court telling us that you did so. You may duplicate this form and fill it out and send it with EACH document you file with this court. An Informal Brief Form. Please note that there is a separate version of this brief form for immigration cases! ___ ___ _____ You must notify the Court in writing of any change of address. 9th Cir. R. 46-3. You must pay your filing fee of $455 (for appeals from district courts). If you cannot pay your fee and want to ask that it be waived, you must file a motion to proceed in forma pauperis. If your motion is denied and you do not pay the fees, your appeal will be dismissed. You must file your opening brief by the date stated on the time schedule order. If you want to file a reply to your opponent's brief, you must do that within 14 days of the date they served you with the brief. If you are an appellant in an appeal from an action filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 or § 2255, you MUST first obtain a certificate of appealability regarding any issues you want to raise in your brief. If the district court has denied a certificate of appealability, you must seek a certificate from this court. See 9th Cir. R. 22-1. See page 5 of this handout for more details. Once all the briefs are filed, the case will be considered by a panel of three Judges. Unless one or more of the Judges requests that oral argument be heard, your case will be submitted on the briefs. 2 American LegalNet, Inc. www.USCourtForms.com _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a). _____ In some cases, the Judges may decide a case before the completion of briefing, but you will be given an opportunity to tell the court why the case should not be summarily decided before the filing of your opening brief. See 9th Cir. R. 3-6. If they decide that argument would be beneficial to the Court, you will receive notice that your case has been calendared for argument. When the Judges decide your case, you will receive a memorandum disposition or order. _____ _____ 3 American LegalNet, Inc. www.USCourtForms.com I. THE COURT OF APPEALS The Court of Appeals reviews final decisions of the U.S. District Court, U.S. Tax Court, Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) and certain federal agencies. The court looks at the district court or administrative record in the case and the briefs of the parties to see if there are any constitutional, legal, or factual mistakes. NO new evidence or testimony can be presented in this court. II. THE FEDERAL RULES You must follow the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (Fed. R. App. P.) and the Ninth Circuit Rules. Make sure you follow the actual language of the rules. The Federal Rules are available in most law libraries. If you would like a copy of the Ninth Circuit Rules, free of charge, please send a written request to the Clerk's office and one will be sent to you. Please include a return mailing label with your address on it with your request. They are also available on the court's website, http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/. III. PAYMENT OF FEES The docketing and filing fees for an appeal are paid in the BAP, district court or tax court when the notice of appeal is filed. If you cannot afford to pay the fees, you may: 1. File a motion to proceed without payment of fees. This motion is called a Motion to Proceed in forma pauperis. You must file this motion in this court together with a financial affidavit, including a statement by you swearing under penalty of perjury that you do not have enough money or other assets to pay the fees. You may use the Form affidavit provided as Form 4 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. If this court determines that your appeal is without legal or factual merit, it may deny your motion whether or not you can afford to pay the fees. If the motion is denied, you MUST pay the fees. See Fed. R. App. P. 24. If you do not pay your filing fees or file a motion to proceed in forma pauperis, your case will be dismissed. See 9th Cir. R. 42-1. If your motion to proceed in forma pauperis is GRANTED, you do not need to pay the filing fees, unless you are a prisoner in a civil (non-habeas corpus) 4 American LegalNet, Inc. www.USCourtForms.com 2. 3. 4. appeal, in which case you will be required to pay the entire $455 docketing and filing fees when funds exist in your prison account. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b). If you are incarcerated, the court will notify you of your obligations under this statute and will require you to complete and return an authorization form to allow prison officials to deduct the funds from your account on a monthly basis. In addition, all litigants proceeding in forma pauperis still have to pay for other expenses of their appeal. These include copying, mailing, or costs you may have to pay the other party if you lose
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