pleadings

pleadings
The formal allegations by the parties to a lawsuit of their respective claims and defenses, with the intended purpose being to provide notice of what is to be expected at trial. Rules or Codes of Civil Procedure. Unlike the rigid technical system of common law pleading, pleadings under federal and state rules or codes of civil procedure have a far more limited function, with determination and narrowing of facts and issues being left to discovery devices and pre-trial conferences.
In addition, the rules and codes permit liberal amendment and supplementation of pleadings. The Field Code (q.v.) of New York was the first major state effort to simplify pleading requirements. This was followed by similar state civil procedure codes, and by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure at the federal level. Under rules of civil procedure the pleadings consist of a complaint, an answer, a reply to a counterclaim, an answer to a cross-claim, a third party complaint, and a third party answer. Fed.R.Civil P. 7(a).
For amendment of pleadings, see amendment.
For judgment on pleadings, see judgment.
- defective pleadings
- supplemental pleading
@ affirmative pleadings
@ common law pleading
The system of rules and principles, established in the common law, according to which the pleadings or responsive allegations of litigating parties were framed with a view to preserve technical propriety and to produce a proper issue. The process performed by the parties to a suit or action, in alternately presenting written statements of their contention, each responsive to that which precedes, and each serving to narrow the field of controversy, until there evolves a single point, affirmed on one side 1153 , and denied on the other, called the "issue," upon which they then go to trial. The individual allegations of the respective parties to an action at common law proceeded from them alternately in the order and under the following distinctive names: The plaintiffs declaration, the defendant's plea, the plaintiffs replication, the defendant's rejoinder, the plaintiffs surrejoinder, the defendant's rebutter, the plaintiffs surrebutter; after which they have no distinctive names
@ pleading Fifth Amendment
@

Black's law dictionary. . 1990.

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