Amicus Curiae Briefs

 The meaning of amicus curiae is ‘friend of the court’. Amicus briefs is a “legal document filed by a person who does not have any interest in the outcome of the case of files it for greater public good” (https://www.legalserviceindia. com/legal/article-796-amicus-curiae.html). Amicus brief can be defined as “a legal opinion submitted to the court by a person or organisation not directly involved in the case in support of a litigant or issue before the court” (Harmening and Gamez, 2016, page 10). The person who authors the amicus curiae briefs wants to provide relevant information to the court so as to help the court in decision making. An amicus thus is an individual or it could also be an organisation that is provided or granted a discretionary leave to file a brief, that is written, so as to obtain an insight in a certain issue, that the parties to the case may not be able to focus on due to lack of expertise or even time. Amicus briefs as such can play an important role in certain legal cases. Thus, forensic psychologists also can be an amicus and can author an amicus curiae briefs, with the help of which they can provide important insight in certain aspects of the case. Psychological associations can also play an important role in filing an amicus briefs. American Psychological Association (APA) for instance has played an important role in judicial as well as legislative process by submitting amicus curiae briefs (Bersoff, 2013). And this is turn can also have an influence on public policy formulations.

As such amicus briefs can be seen as means of making the legal decision makers aware about data regarding certain prominent issues. As mentioned by Bersoff, D (2013), “APA has comtributed 147 amicus briefs, with 58 of these filed in the U.S. Supreme Court)”. An infact one of the first amicus briefs that was submitted by APA was in the case Jenkins V. United Stated in the year 1962 in the U.S. Court if Appeals for the District of Columbia in which the decision taken was that psychologists can serve as expert witnesses with reference to the existence as well as nature of mental illnesses.

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