Group III: Pleadings and Motions · Last amended October 20, 2021 · Last verified July 15, 2026
Rule 7 was amended, effective March 1, 1986; March 1, 2011; March 1, 2018; October 20, 2021. This rule is derived from Fed.R.Civ.P. 7. Under paragraph (a)(7), a reply to an answer or third-party answer is allowed only on court order.
Subdivision (b) was amended, effective March 1, 2018, to eliminate language allowing a motion to be stated as part of a notice of motion.
Subdivision (b) was amended, effective October 20, 2021, to correct punctuation.
Rule 7 was amended, effective March 1, 2011, in response to the December 1, 2007, revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The language and organization of the rule were changed to make the rule more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules.
Rule 7(a) closes the door on pleadings that are not on its list: a complaint, an answer to the complaint, an answer to a counterclaim, an answer to a crossclaim, a third-party complaint, an answer to a third-party complaint, and — only if the court orders it — a reply to an answer or a third-party answer. Unlike an answer, which a defending party must file as a matter of course, a reply is not available on request; a party who wants to respond to new matter in an answer needs the court's permission first.
Rule 7(b) turns to motions, which are the vehicle for any request for a court order. A motion must ordinarily be in writing — the exception is a motion made orally during a hearing or trial — and it must state, with particularity, both the grounds supporting the request and the relief the moving party wants. Rule 7(b)(2) then folds motions into the same formatting rules that govern pleadings generally, including the caption requirements set out in Rule 10.
The rule has stayed close to its short form since it was adapted from the federal rule, apart from a 2018 change that removed language once allowing a motion to be stated inside a notice of motion, and a 2021 amendment that only corrected punctuation.
Rule 7(a) allows a complaint, an answer to the complaint, an answer to a counterclaim, an answer to a crossclaim, a third-party complaint, and an answer to a third-party complaint. No other pleading is allowed unless the court orders a reply.
No. Rule 7(a)(7) allows a reply to an answer or a third-party answer only if the court orders one. You cannot file it merely because you want to respond to something the answer raised.
Ordinarily, yes. Rule 7(b)(1) requires a motion to be in writing unless it is made during a hearing or trial, in which case it can be made orally.
Rule 7(b)(1) requires the motion to state, with particularity, the grounds for the order sought and the relief being requested.
Yes. Rule 7(b)(2) applies the rules governing captions and other matters of form in pleadings to motions and other documents as well, which ties back to the caption requirements in Rule 10.