Saturday, February 05, 2005

Single form of action bill advances

SB 1118, which "creates a single form of pleading for civil actions," is making its way through the Senate.

I read about this a while back and wondered what became of it. The change is to the good. It will eliminate one perennial problem, figuring out what to call that initial pleading, especially when you've got some statutory claim and nobody knows whether it is legal or equitable.

Virginia civil procedure is filled with incredible strangeness and ambiguity. You'd think after all these years, it would be pretty well-known, for example, what can be raised by a plea and how, or what can be raised on demurrer and how, and maybe these things are well-known but widely ignored.

No comments: