How to file a Mandamus in Federal Court

[lincclay 16]

9 minutes ago, Willie_Overall said:

 

Yeah, I definitely messed up. I already filed it based on templates I found online. Pretty sure it's wrong and I proceeded too quickly without adequately understanding what I was doing. I wasn't aware of the lack of anonymity until afterwards. So my information is all out there. I definitely feel like this is done intentionally by the courts to dissuade people from filing lawsuits. Our information should not be so easily available simply because we filed a lawsuit.

 

The upside is that I guess I could just file as many lawsuits as it takes to get it right. My information is already public. Might as well just keep going.

Regarding the anonymity, I don't think there is much you could have done. Even though I am aware of it, I will still go with it and become public. I would rather go public rather than sit and deal with the government's bs and corrupt structure. As long as you are fine with the costs, filing incorrect form shouldn't negatively impact your case.

[lincclay 16]

I had a few questions from the folks who have already submitted the complaint. I am getting close to filing it and am running through everything to make sure I am not missing anything.

1) Regarding exhibits (attachments) I have seen it being recommended to attach application receipts and the page showing processing time for 80% of cases. Do you also attach the communications you had with USCIS, like their useless responses to service requests or Senator requests? (as prove that they never resolved the issue.) Also when attaching these did you redact the sensitive information like DOB, address, alien numbers etc maybe with the exception of case number?

My next questions are about the civil cover sheet, an example is here: https://cand.uscourts.gov/wp-content/uploads/forms/civil-forms/JS-CAND-44_fillable_10-2020.pdf

2) The form has a place for attorney signature at the end, are we supposed to fill in everything except the last part (date and signature)?

3) I have heard the basis of Jurisdiction should be Federal Question, but the guide made me confused. According to the form guide it says if one of plaintiffs or defendants is U.S. we should select one of the first two. When defendants are U.S. agencies don't they count as U.S.?

4) Nature of Suit: Other Immigration Actions? (or the Naturalization Application if you are doing N400)

5) Cause of Action: I think for Mandamus it should be 28 U.S.C. § 1361 - U.S. Code Action to compel an officer of the United States to perform his duty. Description could be: failure of USCIS to perform its duty of adjudicating the case. (correct me if I am wrong)

6) Requested in Complaint: what do we put in the Demand$? should we calculate/estimate the fees and costs and put there as reward? or should we write that demand is for USCIS to adjudicate the case?

7) Jury Demand: I guess this one should be No, because we probably want the case to get decided by the judge, is this correct?

[lincclay 16]

A few of questions regarding defendants from the people who have successfully filed it.

1) I have seen USCIS and Ur M. Jaddou named as two separate defendants and similarly DHS and its secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. I have also seen that they are mentioned as single entity i.e. the agency and its head for example something like  Ur M. Jaddou, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Did anyone separate the agency and its heads as two separate defendants?

2) I have also seen United States being mentioned as a defendant, anyone done this?

3) Did anyone list the attorneys (the attorney general Merrick Garland and your district attorney) as defendants? the handbook does not mention to name these as defendants just to send a copy of everything to them. But I have seen cases where they are named as defendants.

4) I am a little bit concerned on the 500 pages documents that we need to copy to send to these defendants/attorneys so want to be as conservative as possible. 500 pages is an insane amount of pages to copy and send. Is the 500 page number right or is it an exaggeration?

Edited October 13 by lincclay

[lincclay 16]

I found this sample that is amazing, answers a lot of my questions: https://refugeerights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/NK-Complaint.pdf

a couple of things that I learnt from this:

1) In civil cover sheet US Goverment Defendant should get selected not Federal Question.

2) The attorney general and local district attorneys require their own summons i.e. in my case that defendants are going to be directors of USCIS, DHS, NBC not only I need 3 summon directed to these but need 2 extra summons directed at AG and local attorney. I had previously read somewhere, we just simply copy the summons of the defendants and send them to the two attorneys, but that is not the case (you might want to include copies of the other summons as well but they need a summon specifically directed at them.)

[igoyougoduke 1,656]

On 10/11/2024 at 7:42 PM, Willie_Overall said:

 

Like sexual assault cases, domestic violence, things like that. That's what I've found online anyway.

 this is an immigration case you are filing against USCIS. none of what you specify apply to any mandamus cases. 

[Willie_Overall 24]

6 hours ago, igoyougoduke said:

 this is an immigration case you are filing against USCIS. none of what you specify apply to any mandamus cases. 

 

Obviously.

 

I was responding to that poster's question.

[lincclay 16]

On 9/11/2024 at 9:58 AM, igoyougoduke said:

USPS certified mail is perfectly acceptable to any federal agency complaint for Mandamus.   no one at the state level needs to served for Mandamus.  its a federal level complaint. Rules vary at state level for the type of case ( civil/criminal) . We dont really care about any other type of cases except Mandamus to USCIS 

 

 

Did you also request return service requested? (it is an additional service on top of certified mail that sends back receipt proof, it has electronic and physical versions.). If so did you wait for the return notices and then sent them with the proof of service forms to the court? or did you just request the return notice to be sent directly to the court? 

[Willie_Overall 24]

On 10/12/2024 at 3:53 PM, lincclay said:

Regarding the anonymity, I don't think there is much you could have done. Even though I am aware of it, I will still go with it and become public. I would rather go public rather than sit and deal with the government's bs and corrupt structure. As long as you are fine with the costs, filing incorrect form shouldn't negatively impact your case.

 

Just an update. My original case fell off the google search results for some reason. If you just type in my name, it doesn't come up anymore.

 

I did hire a lawyer and they filed a few days ago. That only comes up if you put in my last name and the parties that we're suing. So just googling me has absolutely nothing about this now.

[lincclay 16]

On 11/1/2024 at 11:22 PM, Willie_Overall said:

 

Just an update. My original case fell off the google search results for some reason. If you just type in my name, it doesn't come up anymore.

 

I did hire a lawyer and they filed a few days ago. That only comes up if you put in my last name and the parties that we're suing. So just googling me has absolutely nothing about this now.

Cool, but search engines do not necessarily show all results, they will drop them if they think it is too similar to others. This largely depends on the person's name. Based on my research, if the person has a name consisting with common parts it won't get picked up. Otherwise it would. You can also try other search engines and in Google search you can try putting your name inside quotes (in that case it will perform an exact matching)

[lincclay 16]

For folks who have done pro se, I have another question, it seems that in the serving process you cannot send the documents yourself and sign the proof of service (this hasn't been pointed out beforehand in any of the DIY guides)? According to https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_4 it clearly states in section (c) that the server (whoever is sending the certified mail and signing the proof of service as the server) should not be a party to the case. Does this also apply to section (i)? (When doing mandamus).

[lincclay 16]

On 11/4/2024 at 11:23 AM, lincclay said:

For folks who have done pro se, I have another question, it seems that in the serving process you cannot send the documents yourself and sign the proof of service (this hasn't been pointed out beforehand in any of the DIY guides)? According to https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_4 it clearly states in section (c) that the server (whoever is sending the certified mail and signing the proof of service as the server) should not be a party to the case. Does this also apply to section (i)? (When doing mandamus).

Here is the a very good document also mentioning this (https://publiccounsel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Guide-Serving-the-United-States.pdf), so based on my research (and the document linked) you are not supposed to do this (some district courts my have slightly different local rules but most probably won't). Surprisingly I have seen lots of pro se mandamus cases that plaintiff filed it themselves but they also succeeded. So I guess when the plaintiff is pro se, courts might be more forgiving (but this forgiveness is not guaranteed).

[Willie_Overall 24]

7 hours ago, lincclay said:

Here is the a very good document also mentioning this (https://publiccounsel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Guide-Serving-the-United-States.pdf), so based on my research (and the document linked) you are not supposed to do this (some district courts my have slightly different local rules but most probably won't). Surprisingly I have seen lots of pro se mandamus cases that plaintiff filed it themselves but they also succeeded. So I guess when the plaintiff is pro se, courts might be more forgiving (but this forgiveness is not guaranteed).

 

You can't. I attempted to file a Mandamus on my own at first and talked to people at the clerk's office from the federal court near me. Getting information was like pulling teeth, but they told me that you can't serve them on your own. I also spoke with the US attorney's office and they (much more readily) told me the same thing.

 

This revelation is ultimately one of the things that convinced me to hire a lawyer. I'm not sure I believe many of the self-filed Mandamus stories online now. For me, it wasn't worth it to file the lawsuit and wait 2 months only to have the lawsuit dismissed on a technicality. I decided to just spend the money and have the peace of mind in knowing that everything is being filed correctly.

Edited November 6 by Willie_Overall

[lincclay 16]

30 minutes ago, Willie_Overall said:

 

You can't. I attempted to file a Mandamus on my own at first and talked to people at the clerk's office from the federal court near me. Getting information was like pulling teeth, but they told me that you can't serve them on your own. I also spoke with the US attorney's office and they (much more readily) told me the same thing.

 

This revelation is ultimately one of the things that convinced me to hire a lawyer. I'm not sure I believe many of the self-filed Mandamus stories online now. For me, it wasn't worth it to file the lawsuit and wait 2 months only to have the lawsuit dismissed on a technicality. I decided to just spend the money and have the peace of mind in knowing that everything is being filed correctly.

 

The process is a lot more complicated than some online guides make it seem. I've been studying it off and on for the past three months and will be filing on my own soon. But if you’re not ready to spend some time learning the ropes, I wouldn’t recommend going pro se—it’s easy to mess up, and you don’t want to rely on luck to succeed. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way that might help the readers:

 

1) Picking Defendants and Finding Agency Directors: Getting the right mix of defendants and tracking down the current directors of different agencies can be tricky. For example, the San Francisco Field Office recently changed directors, but there’s almost nothing online about it, and USCIS won’t tell you who the new director is either. If you check out recent cases, though, you can often figure this out. It’s also a good idea to add placeholder defendants, like “John Does 1-10” and “Jane Does 1-10,” so you can amend the complaint later if needed.

 

2) Avoiding Dismissal and Strengthening: Your Complaint: USCIS has a few go-to moves for dismissing cases, so it helps to know what they are and how to counter them. For instance, you’ll need to argue that USCIS has a non-discretionary duty to at least process (if not approve) your case. USCIS often claims that adjudicating cases is discretionary, and the law can be a bit murky here, especially for things like I-485 cases. Studying other cases can give you ideas on how to write your complaint to avoid easy dismissal.

 

3) Using Both Mandamus and APA Claims: While mandamus claims are the most talked about, it’s smart to include two counts in your complaint: one for Mandamus and another for a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). While they do overlap, using both can give you some extra benefits. For Mandamus, you need to show that the lawsuit is the only way to solve the issue. Without an APA count, USCIS could argue that there’s another option (the APA) that could address the problem, which would weaken your Mandamus claim. Plus, if you skip the APA, the judge might insist on “exhausting all other remedies” first—basically, telling you to wait longer. Adding the APA count, though, reinforces that action is needed.

 

4) Serving the Process: You can’t just send documents by certified mail. You’ll need to either ask a friend or family member to serve them or hire a process server (usually around $50 per summons). This guide has some helpful links on how to get the right addresses: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/practice_advisory/whom_to_sue_and_whom_to_serve_in_immigration-related_district_court_litigation_2024.pdf. Plus, USCIS and DHS have emails you should send to as well.

 

5) Check Out Your District Court’s Rules and Resources: Make sure to read through your district court's pro se handbook, Local Rules, and any standing orders—both the general ones and any specific to the judge assigned to you.

 

6) Resources I’ve Found Helpful (beyond cases): I recommend checking out Sarraf Gentile LLP’s YouTube channel and their book on Amazon (I’m not affiliated with them). I’ve learned a lot from their content.

 

7) Another area I’m still getting familiar with is legal etiquette—things like how to respond to a motion, how to file one, and how to amend your case.

[igoyougoduke 1,656]

4) Serving the Process: You can’t just send documents by certified mail. You’ll need to either ask a friend or family member to serve them or hire a process server (usually around $50 per summons). This guide has some helpful links on how to get the right addresses: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/practice_advisory/whom_to_sue_and_whom_to_serve_in_immigration-related_district_court_litigation_2024.pdf. Plus, USCIS and DHS have emails you should send to as well.

 

This is incorrect. You can serve your mandamus once filed in court through USPS certified mail. you should not ask friends or family to serve the defendants.  

 

[lincclay 16]

3 hours ago, igoyougoduke said:

4) Serving the Process: You can’t just send documents by certified mail. You’ll need to either ask a friend or family member to serve them or hire a process server (usually around $50 per summons). This guide has some helpful links on how to get the right addresses: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/practice_advisory/whom_to_sue_and_whom_to_serve_in_immigration-related_district_court_litigation_2024.pdf. Plus, USCIS and DHS have emails you should send to as well.

 

This is incorrect. You can serve your mandamus once filed in court through USPS certified mail. you should not ask friends or family to serve the defendants.  

 

 

Please also provide references for the statement, without reference it adds to the confusion of the readers since the references provided so far seems to suggest otherwise. Generally family members or friends are not party to the case and they can server like this: https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/are-family-members-or-friends-considered-party-to--5758888.html I have not seen anything suggesting something else for Mandamus cases.

 

Also copy pasting from here: https://publiccounsel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Guide-Serving-the-United-States.pdf

Serving the United States (Mandamus is in this category): If you are a plaintiff and you have filed a Complaint, you must arrange for delivery of a copy of the Summons and Complaint to each defendant in your case. This is called “service of process.” However, a plaintiff cannot serve the Summons and Complaint. The person who serves the Summons and Complaint (the “server”) must be at least 18 years old and not a party to the lawsuit. To serve the United States when it is the defendant in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, your server must do each of the following:

Edited November 6 by lincclay