Rule 3:7.Bills of Particulars.

A complaint or other pleading can be too thin to work with. When that happens, this rule lets a party move promptly for a bill of particulars — a filing that amplifies the pleading — whenever the original pleading doesn’t give the opposing side adequate notice of a claim or defense, the kind of notice needed for a real opportunity to respond or to prepare the case.

A bill of particulars can itself fall short. If it fails to inform the opposing party of the true nature of the claim or defense, that party can move promptly to strike it, and the court can order an amended bill of particulars in its place. If the amended version still doesn’t do the job, the court has a further option: it can strike both the pleading that was never adequately amplified and the bills of particulars themselves.

Deadlines run through the rest of the process. Any order requiring or permitting a bill of particulars, or an amended one, has to fix the time within which it must be filed. And once a bill of particulars is filed, a response is due on its own clock: if the bill amplifies a complaint, the defendant has 21 days to respond to the amplified pleading, unless the defendant is content to rely on pleadings already on file. If the bill amplifies some other pleading, any required response is due within 21 days of the bill’s filing, or within whatever shorter or longer time the court sets.