Summary
Most appellale-level courts (state supreme courts and mid-level appellate courts) welcome written legal arguments filed by nonparties to a lawsuit that inform the court of the broad-based legal, social and economic issues involved in the case. Such a nonparty is known as amicus curiae, literally "a friend of the court," and the written legal arguments it files are called amicus briefs. Modern amicus briefs invariably advance the policy arguments of a particular party to the dispute, and they are considered to some degree to be a form of judicial lobbying. The problem with amicus briefs is that they are very expensive to file, costing up to hundreds of thousands of dollars when addressing complex cases. In order to mitigate these costs and make amicus briefs a cost-effective tool, businesses should look to their trade organizations and associations for help.
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Extract
A Friend of the Court
Courts routinely interpret laws and make policy decisions that dramatically affect certain industries or commerce as a whole. In particular, decisions by the highest state courts tend to establish trends and set legal rules that re...
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