A Summary of Pleading Rules

Why is this section here?  Well, we get to see a lot of clients who have started out handling a case themselves and who have made a mess of it because they put too much or too little in their answer filed with the court.  This is usually due to a misunderstanding of the basic principals of pleading.   While this short summary cannot give you the same knowledge as an attorney, it may help avoid serious errors.

  1. A pleading is intended to make claims in a simple, readily understandable form.  In other words, long convoluted statements should be avoided.
  2. Any pleading should be sufficient to put the adverse party and the court on notice of what the pleading party is claiming.
  3. A pleading should have each allegation made in a separate, short paragraph.  A good test is whether a paragraph can be easily responded to with a simple admission or denial.  If a party has to admit x, y and z, but deny p, q, and r of a given allegation, the allegation needs to be broken down into several paragraphs.  In an answer, several allegations of the complaint or petition can be answered in single paragraphs.  An answer might be:  “1)  Deny the allegations of paragraphs 1, 3, 4, and 6,” and “2)  Admit the allegations of paragraphs 2 and 5,” and “3)  Deny for lack of sufficient information to form a belief as to the truth or falsity thereof the allegations of paragraphs 7, 8 and 9.”  Each numbered paragraph would be a new line, but that is, as far as form goes, a proper answer to a complaint or petitioner of nine paragraphs.
  4. A responsive pleading – an answer to a complaint or petition, or a reply to a counterclaim – should be explicit and clear as to what allegations are admitted or denied.
  5. A responsive pleading should allege any defense that is likely to take the adverse party by surprise.
  6. A pleading is not the place to set forth the evidence in the case.  Yes, there are times where a party may attach a lease, contract, promissory note or the like to a pleading, but that is usually done where there is really no issue as to the item attached.  The big mistake pro se parties make is to bulk up an answer with piles of evidentiary items.  This is bad because a) judges want the Answer to be a simple, easy to read summary of the defenses, and judges do not want to read 20 pages where half a page would do; and b) you may be needlessly giving the opposing side ammunition to use against you, either by providing them with knowledge about something of which they were ignorant, or, worse yet, stating something that can easily be taken out of context as an admission that you did not intend to make.
  7. There are certain defenses that must be raised in an answer or they are waived – the defense of lack of personal jurisdiction is a prime example.  If the papers were not properly served, but the defendant or respondent serves an answer that does not raise the defense of lack of personal jurisdiction, that defense is forever waived and cannot be asserted in an amended pleading.
  8. An allegation that is not the subject of a specific response is usually, but not always, deemed admitted.  There is an exception that applies often in housing matters – in Civil Court, a counterclaim raised by a tenant-respondent in a summary proceeding, or a defendant in an action, is deemed “generally denied” if not responded to; that means that there is denial, but any defense that would have to be pleaded is not deemed interposed.
  9. Pleadings can usually be amended.  It may be necessary to make a motion to amend a pleading, or it may be possible to simply serve an amended pleading, but the general rule is that pleadings are freely amendable so long as the rights of the other parties are not prejudiced.  As a practical matter, it is usually best to have a pleading done properly the first time, however, and some defenses are waived if not raised in the first answer served.

 

There are also a number of strategy issues relating to pleadings which really cannot be explained to someone who does not have experience in litigation.  There may be times when a party wants to get the adverse party to commit to a legal theory early in the case, or to specifically admit or deny factual matters that technically do not have to be alleged.  It may be that pleading a claim or defense in a certain way will cause an adversary to make a motion that has the effect of forcing the adverse party to reveal evidence or documents very early in a case, or supply an affidavit with specific factual statements that can be used later in a case.

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