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Complaint and Answer (Pleadings)

The documents that start a civil case and frame what it is about - what a complaint must contain, how a defendant answers it, what an admission, denial and affirmative defence each do, counterclaims and cross-claims, and what happens when a pleading is late, deficient or needs to be amended.

Informational only - this is not legal advice. These definitions explain general legal vocabulary in plain English. They are not advice about your situation, reading them creates no attorney-client relationship, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. For advice you can rely on, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state.

What it means

A civil lawsuit begins with a complaint (in some states a petition): the plaintiff's written statement of who the parties are, why this court has jurisdiction, what the defendant did, and what the plaintiff wants. Modern rules require notice pleading rather than proof - a short and plain statement of the claim - but the facts alleged must, taken as true, make each claim plausible and not merely conceivable; a complaint that recites the elements of a claim without facts supporting them can be dismissed before the defendant ever answers. Claims of fraud and mistake must be pleaded with particularity. The complaint is filed with the court, which issues a summons, and the two are served on the defendant under the service rules; service, not filing, starts the defendant's clock.

The defendant's response is the answer, due within a period the rules fix from service. It goes through the complaint's numbered paragraphs admitting, denying, or stating that the defendant lacks knowledge sufficient to admit or deny each allegation - an allegation not denied is deemed admitted - and then sets out affirmative defences: matters that defeat the claim even if the allegations are true, such as the statute of limitations, release, payment, accord and satisfaction, contributory or comparative fault, waiver, estoppel and res judicata. An affirmative defence not pleaded is generally waived, which is why answers list them generously. The answer may also assert a counterclaim against the plaintiff (compulsory if it arises from the same transaction, and lost if not raised), a cross-claim against a co-defendant, or a third-party complaint bringing in someone who may owe the defendant indemnity or contribution. Instead of answering, a defendant may first move to dismiss on grounds such as lack of jurisdiction, improper venue or failure to state a claim; certain of those defences are waived if not raised in the first response.

A defendant who neither answers nor moves within the time allowed is in default, and the plaintiff may seek a default judgment. Pleadings can be amended: once freely at the outset, afterwards with the other side's consent or the court's leave, which the rules say should be given freely when justice requires, subject to the scheduling order and to the rule that an amendment adding a claim against a new party relates back to the original filing only in narrow circumstances. Every pleading, motion and other paper is signed by the lawyer or self-represented party, and the signature certifies that the filing is not for an improper purpose and that its contentions have evidentiary and legal support; a filing that violates that certification can result in sanctions after the target has had a chance to withdraw it. Pleadings define the case - discovery, summary judgment and trial are confined to the claims and defences they contain - and an issue tried without objection is treated as if it had been pleaded.

Where this comes from

In federal court the pleading rules are Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 7 (pleadings allowed), 8 (general rules: the short-and-plain-statement standard, admissions and denials, affirmative defences), 9 (particularity for fraud and mistake), 10 (form), 11 (signature and sanctions), 12 (defences and objections; the waiver rule at 12(h)), 13 (counterclaim and cross-claim), 14 (third-party practice), 15 (amendment and relation back) and 55 (default). The plausibility standard is Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009); the older notice-pleading formulation is Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41 (1957). Every state has its own rules of civil procedure, most modelled on the federal rules; California (Code of Civil Procedure §§ 420-475) and New York (CPLR article 30) follow different structures, including the demurrer in place of the motion to dismiss. The time to answer, the amendment deadlines and the safe-harbour period under the sanctions rule are fixed by the rules and are not stated here.

When people hire a lawyer for this

A person who has been served should get advice within days, not weeks, because the time to respond is short, an unanswered complaint becomes a default, and some defences are lost if not raised in the very first filing. A plaintiff drafting a complaint without a lawyer should understand that the pleading standard is real: a complaint that names a wrong and asks for money, without facts showing each element of a recognised claim, invites a motion to dismiss and, on the third attempt, dismissal with prejudice. The pleadings also fix the claims for the life of the case, so what is left out at the start is expensive to add later.

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Part of the LawyerLand plain-English legal glossary. Definitions are written from primary sources - statutes and court rules - and each entry states the authority it rests on, or says plainly when the doctrine is state law with no national rule.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, civil legal aid programmes provide free help with many of these problems: civil legal aid programmes by state.

Related free reference tools: statute of limitations for a personal-injury claim, by state, quoted from each state's official text - part of LawyerLand's legal reference tools.