Petition for Certiorari
“We’re taking it all the way to the Supreme Court.”
It’s perhaps one of the best-known lines in the practice of law, and yet people rarely mean it. To take an action to the Supreme Court of the United States requires perseverance through many levels of appeals. A case interesting and important enough to be one of the 60-80 cases that the Supreme Court of the United States considers every year is rare indeed. While the Supreme Court of the United States maintains a limited “mandatory” docket, most of its docket is discretionary, which means it is totally up to the Justices to decide whether to take a case.
What is Certiorari?
Most cases that come to the Supreme Court come on a writ known as a certiorari, also known as a writ of cert. The origins of the word certiorari are uncertain, but the significance of it is not. Certiorari is the writ the Supreme Court issues to review errors from lower courts. These errors must be errors of law. The Supreme Court of the United States does not generally review fact-based determinations from lower courts.
The Supreme Court has never tired of telling litigants that they are not a court of error. This means that they do not review mistakes that lower courts made. They are interested only in cases where they can shape, change, or continue to clarify the law in a way that will affect the United States more generally.
Filing an Appeal to the Supreme Court
If you’re looking to take your case to the Supreme Court, and you’ve exhausted all of your other appeals, you generally have 90 days to file for a writ of cert (but this may vary from case to case, so speak to an appellate lawyer right away). At Cornerstone Law Firm, we can help you with your appeal. Our attorneys have helped to handle appellate matters at various levels of practice, including amicus briefs before the Unites States Supreme Court. Although asking the Supreme Court to review any case is considered a long shot, if it’s your final appeal, it is the only chance you have to come up with a change in your determination.
Contact Cornerstone Law Firm for help.
At Cornerstone Law Firm, we can help by reviewing your case, working with any other attorneys you have, if necessary, and charting a new path depending on what has been preserved in the record. A good petition for cert can put the issues in front of the Court in a way that may draw attention to the matter in a new light. Call us today to set up a consultation.