in this lesson we will discuss some specifics about pleadings that are seeking affirmative relief that is pleadings where the party wants to get something from the other party not just set up a defense saying why they are not liable now the plaintiff you may recall from our previous lesson initiates a lawsuit with a pleading called a complaint in federal court in many state courts or a petition which texas and some other states use as the name what this lesson is going to cover regarding that complaint is the role of the complaint how it sets out boundaries as we have discussed the typical parts of a complaint so that if you see one in your day-to-day work what should you look for how do you go about reading it third we'll talk about the requirements for the content of a complaint because there are a few legal requirements that are out there that drafters need to follow and we also want to discuss the possible roles of the complaint now the most important role of course is the primary one if it sets the boundaries for the lawsuit then it better set forth the factual and legal basis for the plaintiff to recover a judgment that is an order that money should be paid that a debt is true or maybe that an injunction is issued ordering a party to do something or not to do something that is by far the most important part of a complaint but there are some secondary roles and in certain cases these will impact the way a complaint is drafted first a complaint might encourage settlement of the dispute that is maybe this dispute was going on and on and then finally look let's draft a lawsuit file it and then maybe we'll finally get the other side to talk to us that certainly does happen in daily life and that could get a settlement process up and running also some complaints are filed because the client has a desire to tell his or her story that can be important not from a legal perspective but almost more from a psychological or emotional perspective that it's very important for the client to get out there look here's how you did me wrong so to speak and tell the story and the pleading the complaint is the first place where that would be done in a public sort of courtroom setting also in some lawsuits a plaintiff is specifically trying to invoke insurance coverage for the claims how would this be done in most general liability policies there is a blanket of coverage things that the policy will pay for and then certain carve-outs or exclusions that the policy will not pay for since these forms are standard attorneys are generally aware of what are in general liability policies and so they will often make allegations that specifically get the insurance company involved because sometimes if there's an insurance policy at issue there may be a resource available for payment of the claim that is more reliable than the defendant on the other side defendants have been known to be insolvent not have ready sources of cash but if insurance coverage can be invoked then there's a possibility especially with settlement of the claim that actual money is there another reason for filing a complaint is to satisfy a statute of limitations deadline for most claims if you do not file your lawsuit and raise your claim within a certain period of time anywhere from one year to sometimes four years or sometimes even more years than that depending on the claim then you have waived the claim it is not possible at that point to pursue it again so it's very important to get a lawsuit on file another purpose can be create media attention this actually is not true of a typical complaint or lawsuit that's filed but of course you've seen some of these kind of lawsuits where the whole purpose is for the attorney to walk out of the courthouse and say on the client's behalf i've just filed a lawsuit seeking x million dollars of recovery against whoever the party is and so it although that's not the purpose of the legal system it is certainly true that some parties use it as a means for generating media attention once there actually is something of public interest in the sense that a lawsuit is now on the books so let's spend a moment and look through the typical parts of a complaint what is in this document that a party is required to file to get a lawsuit up and running first there's the caption that's the part up at the top of the sample page that you see over on the right that has the court that we're in in this case it's the district district court for the district of colorado which is a federal court and then we have the names of the parties and you see a space where a cause number or a docket number was assigned to the litigation there's going to be a title in this case it's complaint for damages it might sometimes be plaintiff's original complaint or any number of things plaintiffs complaint seeking injunctive relief whatever the title is what matters is that it be accurate in substance some are even as unimaginative as to be called simply complaint figuring you'll read through it and decide what the lawsuit is about beyond the title there needs to be a naming of the parties and the parties show up first in the caption but also in a section usually that is labeled parties just like the one in this example here on your screen and the party's information needs to say what state they're from where they're located and usually how they can be served with process and therefore be brought into the lawsuit all complaints in federal court certainly but usually in state court as well need to state a basis for jurisdiction and venue in other words why does the court have authority to hear this particular complaint that would be jurisdiction and why should the complaint be heard in this particular location that would be venue and certain allegations need to be made there's a whole body of law on that and suffice it for present purposes to say that usually plaintiffs prefer to be in their home court or if not a home court than one where maybe the law or procedure is somehow favorable to what the plaintiff is seeking next we get to factual allegations this is the place where a complaint will usually tell a story about what happened and why the party is seeking relief and this won't necessarily be a detailed story but it needs to be enough that it would put the defendant on notice of why he she or it is being sued now the causes of action section the legal claims section this is incredibly important because more than any other section of the complaint this is where the pleading sets out boundaries if you have a certain legal theory on which you ought to be able to recover money from the defendant or recover some other relief from the defendant you must state it here and if you do not state it properly here it is possible for your lawsuit to be dismissed so the causes of action section is very important the actual narrative part of the pleading will close with a section often called the prayer for relief or request for relief where the party is just saying because of all these things that i've said here in this pleading your honor here's what i want the court to do and that is usually called a prayer for relief there needs to be a signature block at the end of a pleading usually signed by an attorney who is licensed to practice in the jurisdiction where the complaint is being filed following that certain certificates and verifications may appear at the end of the complaint some required certificates might be things like a certificate of service if there's a requirement that that pleading be served on particular parties or maybe a verification in some cases if there are aspects of the pleading maybe certain paragraphs that must be verified that sort of stuff will usually show up at the end of the document along with any other factual attachments or exhibits that might be there but as for the body of the complaint itself it will usually come to an end with the certificates and verifications now the complaint when it follows that form also has some requirements that parties are required to adhere to and again i'm going to give these at the federal level but you'll find that much of it holds true in state courts as well a pleading or a complaint must state a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief what this does is say that there's no requirement for magic language certain words that must be said in a particular formula but the overall gist of the words needs to be something that would suggest oh if this happened to you as you say well then you are entitled to some sort of legal relief as a remedy beyond that the claims in a lawsuit in a complaint must be legally sufficient and by that i mean that if the legal claims are proven to be true then relief can be granted sometimes a complaint is dismissed under federal rule of civil procedure 12 b6 for claims being ones on which relief cannot be granted maybe because the law does not recognize a cause of action uh perhaps the the party did something that's that's at least alleged to be wrong but that's just not the kind of thing you can sue somebody for and those complaints will tend to be dismissed beyond legal sufficiency claims also need to be factually sufficient so if the factual allegations if you will the story that's told in the pleading are true then it would be possible for the court to grant relief but if they are not true well we don't actually care about if they're not true at the pleading stage but they have to be something that could be proven true and if proven true would allow for relief to be granted finally there are two different standards floating around in various courts the old standard in federal court and in many state courts and it still survives in many state courts is that of notice pleading and that means really there's not a lot you have to do you just have to provide enough information that the other party knows that something is up and that it ought to answer for the particular claim that's it it's really putting them on notice and if you do that then the complaint is good enough federal courts in recent years because of two u.s supreme court cases called twombly and iqbal now have moved to a standard called plausibility pleading and that's higher than notice because not only does the other party have to be put on notice but the allegations must be one that are plausible on their face what exactly does that mean to be plausible on their face well attorneys and professors who teach civil procedure can spend lots of time on that and in fact courts are still sorting out what exactly plausibility refers to but they do know it's something beyond just notice and that's something where you'd certainly want to get an attorney involved in making sure that the pleading you file is plausible now the format going back to format uh what's the writing style of complaint it needs to be plain and concise and each statement should be something that is capable of being admitted or denied the reason that it has to be in the form of something that the party could say admit or deny or admit as to x but deny as to why is because that's what the parties who answer a lawsuit have to state if you make a statement that is so vague and incomprehensible that it cannot be admitted or denied then that is a problem and it would be an unsatisfactory complaint generally courts want and a proper pleader should put each allegation in a separate paragraph the reason for this is not so much for grammatical purposes as it is for making it easier to deny or admit the allegations in each paragraph so separate the allegations usually they're in numbered paragraphs it is important also for a party to plead alternatively if it is seeking potentially inconsistent claims what do i mean by potentially inconsistent well suppose you've been the victim of an injury somebody has caused injury to you then you might want to allege number one that that injury was caused negligently it was an accident where the party did not live up to the standard of care and was not careful enough in preventing the accident from happening but if you suspect it's also possible and that facts might prove that the other car that ran into you was acting intentionally was trying to run you down then you might plead in the alternative that the the injury is the result of intentional wrongdoing a battery uh you might say those are inconsistent with each other something being an accident and something being on purpose can't both exist in the same space but in pleadings they can the way that's done is the plaintiff will plead these matters in the alternative and that leaves an opening to prove both one or the other depending on how the lawsuit develops it makes it easier for both the judge and the parties involved if the drafter of a complaint uses subheadings for each cause of action that way it's very clear these are the laws or statutes under which i'm seeking relief so use those subheadings and then again a plaintiff needs to make sure that each cause of action tracks the parts of the applicable legal rule if a legal rule let's say has five elements you'd better make sure that you're pleading alleges all five elements because if all the elements are not ultimately proven then it is impossible to recover on that claim so it's very important to track the legal rule that applies to each cause of action well let's wrap up this look at affirmative pleadings what have we learned by this point we know generally that a pleading has the legal function of defining the scope of the lawsuit but for some people it will have a secondary role in particular cases and those could vary a great deal also despite the wide variety most complaints have typical parts and so when you see one you can turn around and look at another and probably be able to decipher exactly what it is saying also we've learned that you need to be careful to comply with the legal requirements that are applicable to your complaint that means comply with plausibility pleading if that is the standard put verification on claims for example fraud usually requires if you want to bring a lawsuit for fraud then that should be verified and there are other facts under substantive law that require verification so generally you want to make sure that a complaint is done competently and that requires somebody who knows the legal requirements for the complaint having said that if you're in the position of a client and maybe you're just reading the complaint let's say your company got sued and you're reading through the lawsuit you can figure out what's going on really just based on the information from your reading and what we have covered here that concludes this lesson on pleadings seeking affirmative relief