What Is the Purpose of a Legal Complaint
A legal complaint can be described as a claim for an award that was not paid and is overdue. It sets forth the plaintiff’s allegations and asks the court to recognize that something identifiable and monetary is owed to the plaintiff by the defendant and his or her agents. In other words, a complaint is a formal pleading or document that is filed with the court setting in motion the judicial process of a lawsuit.
When writing a civil complaint, remember it is essential that you plead exactly what events have occurred that made you take action; what damages were suffered (include personal property , physical property and emotional attributes); and what relief is being sought. Will you settle or mediate? Your complaint is the first document that’s read by the court when your case gets docketed, so you must make a great impression.
In simplest terms, the purpose of a legal complaint is to notify the defendant of the nature of the suit being brought against him and give facts as to why the defendant is being sued. It must be clear and concise, using plain language that identifies both parties, as well as the time and location of the issue, along with the exact facts of the matter. The plaintiff will need to include the jurisdictional basis and a prayer for relief.
Essential Elements of a Legal Complaint
The foundation of any lawsuit is the legal complaint, which serves as the instrument for commencing the action. A legal complaint must be thoroughly and properly drafted so that it is comprehensive enough to satisfactorily advise all defendants of the nature of the claim(s) being asserted against them while at the same time not being so lengthy and detailed that it obfuscates rather than informs. Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U.S. 714 (1877).
Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("FRCP") requires that all pleadings shall contain:
A short and plain statement of the grounds for the court’s jurisdiction, unless the court already has jurisdiction and the claim needs no new jurisdictional support;
A short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief; and
A demand for the relief sought, which must be in the alternative, if sought in the same action.
FRCP Rule 8(a). A legal complaint must adhere to these general pleading requirements while at the same time "give the defendant fair notice of what the plaintiff’s claim is and the grounds upon which it rests." Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47 (1957). In order to meet this standard, the legal complaint should contain, at a minimum, the following essential elements:
The Parties: The legal complaint should include the names of all of the plaintiffs and defendants, the addresses of all of the plaintiffs and defendants (to the best knowledge at the time), and identify each of the plaintiffs and defendants by their respective capacities, i.e., "as Trustee," "Individually," "in their individual and official capacities of the position they hold," etc. This information may be included in either the introductory paragraph or a separate "Parties" section of the legal complaint.
Jurisdiction: The legal complaint should explain to the court why it has the authority to hear the case. All potential state and federal causes of action need to be filed in the proper court. Therefore, the legal complaint should set forth all of the bases for the court’s jurisdiction, both state and federal, over each of the claims being asserted.
Factual Allegations: The legal complaint should explain all of the facts of the case including who did what and when. This information should be laid out in the body of the legal complaint in easy to understand and chronological order. It is expected that a legal complaint will assert facts that, in reality, are fairly one-sided and formulated from the viewpoint of the plaintiff. The facts, however, must be true, in that they accurately explain the events giving rise to the claims being asserted against the defendants. For example, if the plaintiff is able to show that the defendant was, in fact, a tortfeasor, but the legal complaint alleges that the defendant was not, then the plaintiff’s legal complaint has misrepresented the facts and the court could find it to be deficient.
Legal Claims: Each cause of action that the plaintiff is asserting against the defendant(s) should be set forth separately in the legal complaint and numbered and/or headed accordingly so as to give clear notice to all of the defendants of the specific claims being asserted against them.
Requested Relief: Each legal complaint must contain a prayer for relief that sets forth the relief being requested from the court. The relief being requested must be an actual remedy recognized by law, such as compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, injunctive relief, etc. A legal complaint may not ask a court to punish any of the defendants for their conduct against the plaintiff or the public at large.
How to Prepare a Professional Legal Complaint
Steps to Draft an Effective and Compliant Legal Complaint
A legal complaint is a formal legal document that is the first step to litigating a civil action. It is essentially the first part of litigation to tell the world that you are suing someone.
A legal complaint contains your basic facts, your legal grounds for being at court, and your prayers of relief.
The first step to draft a legally compliant and effective complaint is to gather relevant facts. If you have been injured in an accident and you are looking to sue someone, you would need to start gathering evidence of the accident and creating a timeline. This involves compiling photographs of the damages and injuries, medical records from your doctor, receipts for damage repair, journal entries, etc. It is similar to a police report in that it gives a legal snapshot of the facts of the case.
Once you have the facts, the next step is to identify your legal grounds for suing the defendant. In other words, on what grounds are you suing them? The tort claim has to fit under one of the potential causes of action as outlined in law. The most common actions are negligence, fraud, assault, battery, and trespass to land. Each of these claims has legal elements attached to them that must all exist in order for you to have a claim. Sometimes, a single cause of action allegation may overlap multiple claims.
The third step is to draft your complaint. A complaint will typically contain a caption, basis of jurisdiction, legal grounds, and prayers of relief. Make sure to include a caption with a title and the parties to the lawsuit. The legal grounds section will be a brief statement of the legal issues your lawsuit is concerned with. Last is what you want the court to do for you, essentially setting forth the prayers of relief. Be sure to state whether you demand a jury trial or not. Finally, be sure that the complaint contains all of the elements that your cause of action requires. Otherwise, the complaint could be subject to a motion to dismiss or attack. We go into more detail on what to include in a complaint here.
Finally, you need to file the complaint in the proper court. In all cases, there must be concurrent and exclusive jurisdiction between the plaintiff and defendant.
Legal Complaint Pitfalls to Avoid
An all-too-frequent mistake made by attorneys getting our help on a legal complaint is providing us with a complaint already written, as opposed to a brief. We’ve already gone through this process with a number of firms, and generally the same mistakes keep cropping up. This section will cover a few of those.
First is an argument that belongs in a brief to the judge, not in a complaint. While it may be persuasive to the judge to really tell them exactly what you think of their case law, a legal complaint doesn’t provide the necessary space for a rebuttal to the judge’s rulings. The other side will have an opportunity to argue against you later, when they file their response to your complaint (or their motion, if applicable). So if you find yourself inserting a large section of legal argument into the complaint, you know with 100% certainty that you are doing it wrong.
Second is the omission of parties to the action. Each party to the action must be named in the caption, where the word ‘vs.’ or ‘v.’ is listed. Remove any of the parties that the judge has thrown out of the case, and add back any removed from your case and you’ll be fine.
Third is putting every possible defendant you might encounter in the caption. A general rule of complaint drafting is that you must put in every party who will later have a say in the case. You’ve got up until the discovery phase to take names out and file a new complaint. One time I saw a lawsuit filed by one of the Big Four accounting firms against a former employee , and it had over 1,000 defendants listed in the caption. That is just way too many. It would be a fair bet that some of those were fired as defendants by the judge anyway.
Finally, we come to non-causative facts. For example: after you tell the story of your day in court and how the big-name law firm you’re suing (notice how it was named in the caption?) has cost you so dearly, you might throw in a little information at the end about your cat being sick. This adds a personal element to your lawsuit, but will also doom it. The judge is going to likely set aside the non-causative facts and focus only on the below facts, which in many cases are all that is needed to nail down the complaint. We’ll cover some specific formatting issues in another section, but here’s a quick run-down of what needs to be in this area:
- 9-point font for all text
- 1-inch margins on all sides
- double-spaced lines with no spaces between sections
- numbered paragraphs
- numbered pages with header/footers at the top and bottom of each page
Follow this simple guide and you’ll avoid some of the more common pitfalls when drafting your legal complaint.
Strategies for Composing a Persuasive Complaint
To help you get started, here are some writing tips to keep in mind:
Eliminate the legalese.
Strive for accuracy in your language – in other words, avoid using the legal terms that vaguely describe what they mean. Define your legal terms at their first use. And be honest. In other words, if the Plaintiff did not actually file a lawsuit until a year after the tortious conduct is alleged to have occurred, it is probably inaccurate to say that "Plaintiff was injured on April 5th, 2009."
Be precise.
Avoid undeveloped or vague assertions. A good complaint sets out the facts in a clear and concise fashion so that the defendant (and the judge) understands exactly what the plaintiff thinks the defendant has done wrong.
Use Proper Structure.
This is where you have to tailor the structure of your complaint according to your own case.
A complaint must give every defendant fair notice of what your claim is about. It shouldn’t be a guessing game as to what you are alleging, and against who.
Remember, the long arm statute’s purpose is to provide the Defendant of adequate notice as to where the jurisdiction lies.
Keep it Simple Stupid.
Avoid convoluted sentences and tons of legal jargon to clarify. Avoid overly verbose recitals of the elements, such as when a Plaintiff recounts the facts thoroughly but fails to explain how those facts support the claim.
Take a look at the complaint in Banker’s Trust Co. v. Old Republic Insurance Co., 688 N.E.2d 1197 (1997).
The complaint is in paragraph and numbered and entitled, "Fraud." According to the complaint,
In connection with the settlement of the Minnesota Litigation, Plaintiffs’ agent Lindquist was made fully aware of, yet did not disclose, upon appropriate inquiry on behalf of Plaintiffs, and, in many cases, affirmatively withheld from Plaintiffs the material facts set forth below and elsewhere in this Complaint. As a reasonably prudent, honest, and competent insurance executive and regulatory authority, Lindquist should have known of them, and indeed breach his duty of reasonable inquiry to discover these facts.
If the cause of action on behalf of the Plaintiff Bank was "Fraud," then the Plaintiff should have provided the particulars of the fraud instead of asserting in "paragraph 2" that the Defendant acted "intentionally, knowingly, and/or purposely with the intent to defraud, deceive, and/or injure."
That type of language is not sufficient as it only asserts the required elements of the fraud, but fails to provide the particulars.
Check and Finalize Your Legal Complaint
Once you have completed the draft of your legal complaint, it is time for a thorough review and finalization. This crucial step ensures that your complaint is not only complete but also accurate, coherent, and ready for filing in court.
Read your complaint out loud to catch any awkward phrasing or grammatical mistakes that you may have missed. Listen for inconsistencies in your arguments or contradictions in your statements. Reading out loud helps you to clear your mind of the details and focus on what your complaint actually states.
Next, perform a spell check and grammar check. Verify the accuracy of all names, dates, locations, and dollar amounts. Correct any typographical errors that may have crept in during the drafting process. If you are uncertain about any particular legal term or detail, look it up in a legal dictionary or consult a legal professional .
Check for completeness – does your complaint comply with all local rules on format, content, and length? Make sure all required documents are included, such as a civil cover sheet and summons forms, as well as any mandatory disclosures required by the court.
Finally, print out a clean copy of the complaint (you may also need to provide copies for each defendant). Sign and date the complaint and be sure to keep a copy for your own records. It is also wise to get a friend or family member who is not connected to your case to read your complaint to ensure that a fresh pair of eyes can discern if anything is missing or requires further clarification. Only when you are completely satisfied with your complaint should you consider it finalized and ready for filing.