Filing & Procedure Guide

Service, venue, respondents, deadlines

The decision to file has been made. What follows is the part where cases are lost for reasons that have nothing to do with the merits: the wrong respondent, service that never reached the U.S. Attorney, a district with no venue, an exhibit that was never in the record. This section walks the sequence in the order a filer meets it.

In a district court, the operative rules are specific and unforgiving. Venue against federal officers is governed by 28 U.S.C. § 1391(e). Service requires the full package described in Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(i) — the officer or agency, the United States Attorney for the district, and the Attorney General — within the period set by Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(m). The government's response is due 60 days after service on the United States Attorney under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(a)(2), which is the single most reliable date in the whole timetable, and officials sued in their official capacity are substituted automatically when they leave office under Fed. R. Civ. P. 25(d). In a court of appeals the governing rule is Fed. R. App. P. 21, which sets the form of the petition, requires service on the trial-court judge and all parties, and provides that the court will not grant relief without calling for an answer. Rule 21(a)(2) also requires the petition itself to state the issues, the facts, the relief sought and the reasons the writ should issue, with the supporting documents attached, because the reviewing court has no record of its own. Filing fees are set by 28 U.S.C. § 1914, and 28 U.S.C. § 1915 supplies the in forma pauperis route.

Nothing in this section decides whether the claim is viable; that test is in Foundations, and the delay standard that most complaints must satisfy is in Agencies & Administrative Law. State filings follow entirely different rules and appear in State Practice. Questions about cost, timing and what happens after the agency suddenly acts are answered in Questions & Answers.