Rule 10 — Form of Pleadings

Fed. R. Civ. P. 10

• Source: Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
• Rule: 10
• TITLE III: PLEADINGS AND MOTIONS
• Citation: Fed. R. Civ. P. 10

Text

(a) CAPTION; NAMES OF PARTIES. Every pleading must have a cap-
tion with the court’s name, a title, a file number, and a Rule 7(a)
designation. The title of the complaint must name all the parties;
the title of other pleadings, after naming the first party on each
side, may refer generally to other parties.
(b) PARAGRAPHS; SEPARATE STATEMENTS. A party must state its
claims or defenses in numbered paragraphs, each limited as far as
practicable to a single set of circumstances. A later pleading may
refer by number to a paragraph in an earlier pleading. If doing so
would promote clarity, each claim founded on a separate trans-
action or occurrence—and each defense other than a denial—must
be stated in a separate count or defense.

(c) ADOPTION BY REFERENCE; EXHIBITS. A statement in a pleading
may be adopted by reference elsewhere in the same pleading or in
any other pleading or motion. A copy of a written instrument that
is an exhibit to a pleading is a part of the pleading for all pur-
poses.

Advisory Committee Notes

(As amended Apr. 30, 2007, eff. Dec. 1, 2007.)