Group III: Pleadings and Motions · Last amended March 1, 2019 · Last verified July 14, 2026
Advisory Committee Note — 2019 Amendment: As used in these rules, “complaint” includes a petition or other document that initiates a civil action.
Amended eff. 3-16-64; Amended 12-13-85, eff. 2-11-86; Amended eff. 3-1-19.
Rule 7 closes the door on any pleading not on its list: a complaint, an answer, 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 judge orders one — a reply to an answer. A litigant cannot invent a new kind of pleading to file a "response to a response" or a similar document outside this list. The rule also confirms that a petition or other document that opens a civil case counts as a complaint, so the same pleading rules apply no matter what a party calls its opening document.
Anything a party wants from the court that is not a pleading comes through a motion. Rule 7 requires a motion to be in writing unless it is raised during a hearing or trial, to lay out the grounds for the request with enough detail that the judge and opposing party understand the basis, and to state the relief the moving party wants. The same formatting rules that govern pleadings — captions, signatures, and other matters of form — carry over to motions and other papers filed with the court.
Only if the court orders one. Rule 7 does not let a party file a reply to an answer on its own initiative; it becomes an allowed pleading only when the judge directs it.
A pleading is one of the seven documents Rule 7(a) lists — the complaint and answers that frame the claims and defenses in the case. A motion is how a party asks the court to do something, such as rule on a dispute or issue an order, and it sits outside the list of pleadings.
No. Rule 7(b) requires a motion to be in writing unless it is made during a hearing or trial, when an oral motion made on the record is enough.
It must state the grounds for the request with particularity and identify the relief the moving party wants. A vague request without a stated basis does not meet the rule.
Yes. The rule treats a petition or any other document that opens a civil action as a complaint, so the pleading rules that apply to complaints apply to it as well.