Civil Procedure

Counterclaims and Crossclaims A civil lawsuit does not always consist of one plaintiff making claims against one defendant. Once litigation begins, the defendant may have a claim against the plaintiff, one defendant may have a claim against another defendant, or a party may need to assert a related claim arising Read more

Amending Pleadings Civil litigation rarely proceeds exactly as it begins. A plaintiff may discover that a factual allegation was incomplete, a defendant may identify an additional defense, new information may reveal another legal theory, or an original pleading may contain a mistake that needs to be corrected. The Federal Rules Read more

Rule 12(b)(6) Failure to State a Claim A Rule 12(b)(6) motion is a request asking a federal court to dismiss a claim because the complaint fails to state a legally sufficient claim upon which relief can be granted. It is one of the most important motions in federal civil procedure Read more

Motion to Dismiss A motion to dismiss is a formal request asking a court to terminate a civil claim, a lawsuit, or part of a lawsuit without proceeding to a full trial on the merits. In federal civil litigation, motions to dismiss are governed primarily by Federal Rule of Civil Read more

Affirmative Defenses An affirmative defense is a legal defense that allows a defendant to avoid liability even if the plaintiff’s basic allegations are assumed to be true. Instead of merely saying, “The plaintiff’s allegations are false,” the defendant asserts, in substance, “Even if those allegations are true, the plaintiff still Read more

Answering a Complaint: How a Defendant Responds to a Civil Lawsuit Introduction After a defendant has been properly served with a complaint, the defendant must decide how to respond. In federal civil litigation, one of the principal responses is an answer. An answer is the defendant’s formal pleading responding to Read more

Service of Process: How a Defendant Is Formally Notified of a Lawsuit Introduction Service of process is the formal procedure used to notify a defendant that a lawsuit has been filed and to provide the documents necessary for the defendant to respond. In federal civil litigation, the principal rule governing Read more

Twombly and Iqbal: How the Supreme Court Changed Federal Pleading Standards Introduction Two Supreme Court decisions transformed the way federal courts evaluate civil complaints: Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, decided in 2007, and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, decided in 2009. Together, these cases established what is commonly called the plausibility pleading Read more

Notice Pleading and Plausibility Pleading Notice pleading and plausibility pleading describe two important stages in the development of modern American civil procedure. Both approaches concern the amount and type of factual information a plaintiff must provide when initiating a civil lawsuit, but they reflect different understandings of what a complaint Read more