Lessons · Law foundations · complaint and answer
The complaint and the answer, paragraph by paragraph
The complaint says what happened, what rule it breaks and what is wanted; the answer responds to each numbered paragraph and raises any defences.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
The numbered paragraphs are the case's own index, and the answer lines up against them one for one. The day a supervisor asks what is actually in dispute here, the file that can point at the denied paragraphs answers in a minute and the file that cannot reads everything again.
How to think about it
Read the two documents side by side, paragraph one against paragraph one. Mark each pair admitted, denied, or not known, and the page you end with is the list of what the case is about.
Worked example
Complaint, paragraph 6: the goods arrived eleven days late.One fact per paragraph, numbered, so it can be answered.
Answer, paragraph 6: admitted.Admitted means it is no longer in dispute and does not have to be proved.
Answer, paragraph 7: denied.Denied means somebody will have to prove it at trial.
Answer, paragraph 8: the defendant does not know and cannot say.A real and proper response where the fact is not within their knowledge, and it puts the fact in issue.
Your turn
The defendant answers and also sues the plaintiff back, in the same case. Write the name for that claim.
The defendant's own claim, brought back in the same case: a
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Reading silence as a denial or as an admission without checking the rule the court works under. What an unanswered paragraph means is set by the rules of that court, and it is written down; it is never a matter of taste.