Complaint

Legal Terms Explained: Complaint

A complaint is the document that officially starts a civil lawsuit. Filed by the plaintiff with the court, it lays out who the parties are, what the defendant allegedly did, the legal claims (called causes of action) arising from those facts, and what the plaintiff wants the court to award. Until a complaint is filed, there is no lawsuit — only a dispute.

How it comes up in a real case

Most injury cases begin long before any complaint exists. Take a slip-and-fall at a grocery store: the injured customer hires an attorney, treatment wraps up, a demand letter goes to the store's insurer, and the two sides negotiate. Most claims settle right there.

But suppose the insurer denies liability, and meanwhile the statute of limitations — the legal deadline to sue — is six months away. The attorney now files a complaint, for two reasons: it preserves the claim before the deadline kills it, and it moves the dispute into a forum where the store can be compelled to turn over evidence (incident reports, cleaning logs, camera footage) through discovery.

What the complaint contains

Formats vary by court, but a complaint in our slip-and-fall would typically include:

1. The caption — the court, the parties' names, and a space for the case number
2. Jurisdiction and venue allegations — why this court has authority over the dispute and why this location is proper
3. The parties — identifying the plaintiff and each defendant, including the corporate entity that actually operates the store (suing the wrong entity is a classic early mistake)
4. Factual allegations — numbered paragraphs telling the story: the spilled liquid, how long it sat there, the fall, the injuries
5. Causes of action — separate counts applying the law to those facts, here negligence and premises liability
6. The prayer for relief — the closing demand stating what the plaintiff asks the court to award

Most American courts follow notice pleading: the complaint must give the defendant fair notice of a plausible claim, not prove the case. A handful of states require more detailed fact pleading. Either way, the proof comes later.

What happens after filing

Filing is only step one. The court issues a summons, and the plaintiff must arrange service of process — formally delivering the summons and complaint to each defendant. The defendant then has a fixed window (often 20 to 30 days, depending on the court) to respond, usually by either:

• Filing an answer admitting or denying each allegation and raising defenses, or
• Filing a motion to dismiss, arguing the complaint is legally defective even if everything in it were true

If the defendant ignores the lawsuit entirely, the plaintiff can seek a default judgment. If the complaint turns out to be missing something, courts generally allow the plaintiff to fix it with an amended complaint, especially early in the case.

Two common misconceptions

Filing a complaint does not mean the case goes to trial. The overwhelming majority of civil cases settle after filing — often once discovery clarifies the strength of each side's position.

A complaint's allegations are not findings. Everything in a complaint is just that — an allegation. Defendants are entitled to deny them, and plaintiffs still carry the burden of proving them by a preponderance of the evidence.

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