Rule 7.Pleading Allowed; Form of Motions

Rule 7.01 lists every pleading Tennessee allows: a complaint, an answer, a reply to a counterclaim that is labeled as one, an answer to a cross-claim, a third-party complaint when someone is brought into the case under Rule 14, and a third-party answer. No other pleading is permitted unless the court orders a reply to an answer or a third-party answer, which courts rarely require. The rule cuts off the back-and-forth that older, more permissive pleading systems allowed, closing the pleading stage early so the case can move toward discovery and trial.

Rule 7.02 governs motions separately from pleadings. Except for a motion made during a hearing or trial, an application to the court must be in writing, must state its grounds with particularity, and must set out the relief sought. Tennessee courts read the particularity requirement practically: a motion satisfies it once the trial court and the opposing party understand the grounds well enough to respond, even if the wording is less than precise. The rules governing captions, signatures, and other matters of form that apply to pleadings apply equally to motions.

Rule 7.03 abolishes demurrers, pleas, and exceptions for insufficiency of a pleading — older common-law devices that once let a party challenge a pleading’s legal sufficiency through a separate, freestanding filing. Whatever function those devices served is now performed by a motion or by one of the pleadings Rule 7.01 allows.