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Early federal and state civil procedure in the United States was rather ad hoc and was based on traditional common law procedure but with much local variety. There were varying rules that governed different types of civil cases such as "actions" at law or "suits" in equity or in admiralty; these differences grew from the history of "law" and "equity" as separate court systems in English law.
The plaintiff's original pleading is called a complaint. The defendant's original pleading is called an answer. Rule 8(a) sets out the plaintiff's requirements for a claim: a "short and plain statement" of jurisdiction, a "short and plain statement" of the claim, and a demand for judgment. It also allows relief in the alternative, so the ...
Notice pleading is the dominant form of pleading used in the United States today. [2] In 1938, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were adopted. One goal of these rules was to relax the strict rules of code pleading. [2] The focus of the cause of action was shifted to discovery (another goal of the FRCP). [2]
The focus shifted from pleading the right form of action (that is, the right procedure) to pleading the right cause of action (that is, a substantive right to be enforced by the law). [8] Code pleading stripped out most of the legal fictions that had encrusted common law pleading by requiring parties to plead "ultimate facts."
In jurisdictions based on English common-law systems, the party bringing a criminal charge (in most cases, the state) is called the "prosecution", but the party bringing most forms of civil action is the "plaintiff" or "claimant". In both kinds of action the other party is known as the "defendant".
A form book is a tool used by attorneys in the United States to aid in the filing of pleadings, motions and other legal documents with a court or similar decision-making body. [1] A form book may be a bound volume or binder containing loose-leaf pages, containing forms, clauses and model documents that the attorney might use when preparing a ...
It is hard to determine how much spacing should be put in between words, but a good typographer is able to determine proper spacing. [3] When text and spacing are consistent, this makes it easier to read. [3] Geoffrey Dowding describes the nature of spacing since the invention of printing from moveable type in the fifteenth century.
Loan words and phrases from other languages: In English, this includes terms derived from French (estoppel, laches, and voir dire) and Latin (certiorari, habeas corpus, prima facie, inter alia, mens rea, sub judice) and are not italicized as English legal language, as would be foreign words in mainstream English writing. [5]