The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is located in San Francisco, California, and serves Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Below are a few unique rules and attributes of the Ninth Circuit.
Cir. R. 28-2.6 states that there must be a “Statement of Related Cases” section on the last page of the initial Brief identifying any known related cases pending in the Court. The Statement must include the name and Court of Appeals docket number of the related case and describe its relationship to the case being briefed. If no other cases are deemed related, a statement should be made to that affect.
Cir. Rule 28-2.7 states that pertinent Constitutional provisions, treaties, statutes, ordinances, regulations, or rules must be set forth verbatim and with appropriate citation either directly following the Statement of Issues Presented for Review or in an Addendum introduced by a Table of Contents and bound with the Brief or separately. If the provisions are set as an Addendum to the Brief, a statement must appear following the Statement of Issues indicating the provisions will appear in the Addendum. If the provisions are placed as an Addendum and bound with the brief, the Addendum must be separated from the body of the Brief by a distinctively colored page.
Cir. R. 28-2.8 states that every assertion in the Brief regarding matters in the record shall be supported by a reference to the location in the Excerpts of Record where the matter is to be found.
The Ninth Circuit requires “Excerpts of Record” rather than an “Appendix”. The Excerpts should be a well-organized and accessible collection of all the unsealed documents in the record that are necessary to understand and decide the issues on appeal. With the required documents at their fingertips, judges and their staff can spend more time considering the issues instead of trying to find relevant documents.
The Ninth Circuit’s Appellate ECF (Electronic Case Files) system is mandatory for all attorneys filing in the Court, unless they are granted an exemption. After the Court reviews the electronically-submitted Brief and Excerpts, the Court will direct parties to file 7 paper copies of the Brief and 4 paper copies of the Excerpts with the Court. If the opposing party is an electronic filer, it is not necessary to serve the Brief in paper format on that party. If the opposing party is not an electronic filer, it is necessary to serve the Brief in paper format on that party on the day that the Brief is submitted to the Court.
The paper copy Briefs must include at the end a “Certificate for Brief in Paper Format.” This certificate should indicate that the hard copy Briefs are exactly the same as the Brief filed electronically. This certification is NOT included in the electronic copy filed with the Court.
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