Pleadings Review Checklist

Pre-filing review a litigation team runs on every pleading — complaint, answer, motion, or brief — before it goes to the court. Catches the formatting, sufficiency, ethics, and service problems that cause filings to be rejected, struck, ...

Use this workflow
1

Document Formalities

  1. Verify the court, division, and judge designation

    • Confirm the caption names the correct court (federal vs. state, district, division) and the assigned judge. A complaint captioned for the wrong division is one of the most common rejections at the clerk's window.

  2. Cross-check the case number and party names against the docket

    • Pull the docket from PACER or the state e-filing portal and match every party name and the case number character-for-character. Trustee/representative capacities ("as Trustee of...") are commonly dropped on amended pleadings.

  3. Check formatting against the local rules

    • Font (often 12 or 14 pt Times/Century), margins, line spacing, footnote treatment, and line numbering vary by district and even by judge's standing order. Check the judge's individual rules in addition to the local rules.

  4. Confirm page or word-count compliance

    • Federal briefs are typically capped at 25 pages or a word count under FRAP/local rules; many state courts cap motion briefs at 15. Run Word's word count excluding caption, signature block, and certificate of service.

2

Legal Sufficiency

  1. Walk each cause of action against its required elements

    • For each count, line up the elements from the controlling jury instructions or treatise and confirm a corresponding factual allegation in the body. Missing elements are the easiest 12(b)(6) target.

  2. Confirm the relief requested is legally available

    • Punitive damages, attorney's fees, and injunctive relief require a statutory or contractual hook. Strike from the prayer for relief anything you cannot support with citation.

  3. Test allegations against the Twombly/Iqbal standard

    • Conclusory allegations ("Defendant acted negligently") fail in federal court. Each element needs factual content sufficient to make the claim plausible — names, dates, statements, sequence of events.

  4. Record the sufficiency review outcome
    Collects list
  5. Route flagged claims back to drafting attorney

    • Send a redline with element-by-element notes back to the drafting associate. Do not let a flagged claim proceed to client review — fix the pleading first, then circulate.

3

Procedural Compliance

  1. Confirm the filing is within the statute of limitations

    • Verify the SOL date in the matter docket against the filing date with at least one business day of buffer. Discovery rule, tolling, and continuing-violation theories should be pled affirmatively when the SOL is close.

  2. Verify Rule 4 service plan for every named defendant

    • Identify the registered agent or service address for each corporate defendant; confirm waiver-of-service letters are drafted under FRCP 4(d) where applicable. Foreign defendants invoke Hague Convention timelines that can add months.

  3. Match local rules and judge's standing orders

    • Chambers copies, courtesy hyperlinks, proposed orders, redaction of personal identifiers under FRCP 5.2 — all live in the standing order, not the local rules. Pull the most recent version from the judge's chambers page.

4

Evidence and Exhibits

  1. Index and label every attached exhibit

    • Use sequential exhibit letters (A, B, C) or numbers consistent with the local rule, with a cover sheet for each. Confirm each exhibit referenced in the body has a matching attachment — a missing Exhibit C is the second-most-common clerk rejection after caption errors.

  2. Cross-check factual citations against the record

    • Every "Ex. A at 12:5-15" needs to actually point to that line. Pin cite errors are routinely caught by opposing counsel and used to suggest carelessness on the underlying argument.

  3. Verify affidavits are signed, notarized, and dated

    • Federal practice accepts 28 U.S.C. § 1746 unsworn declarations under penalty of perjury; many state courts still require notarization. Confirm the affiant has personal knowledge of every paragraph — hearsay attestations get stricken.

5

Language and Clarity

  1. Proofread for grammar, punctuation, and typography

    • Read the pleading aloud or use a TTS pass — most typos slip past silent reading. Watch for find-and-replace artifacts where a party name was changed mid-draft.

  2. Run a Bluebook citation check

    • Verify every case citation in Westlaw or Lexis to confirm it is good law, then run the cite-checker (BriefCheck, CiteRight) for form. Look for "abrogated by" or "overruled by" flags — a brief leaning on bad law is a sanctions risk.

  3. Read the brief end-to-end for narrative flow

    • Confirm the Statement of Facts tells a coherent story, the Argument tracks the elements identified earlier, and headings are persuasive (full-sentence point headings, not topic labels).

6

Client Verification

  1. Send the draft to the client with a cover note

    • Flag the specific paragraphs where you need client verification — names, dates, dollar figures, factual narrative. Note privilege and instruct the client not to forward outside the engagement.

  2. Capture client approval to file
    Collects list
  3. Incorporate client-requested revisions

    • Apply the client's edits, then re-run the legal sufficiency check on any paragraph that was substantively rewritten. A client-rewritten factual paragraph is the most common path to an unintentionally weakened claim.

7

Ethical Review

  1. Re-run conflicts on every newly named party

    • Amended pleadings often add defendants, third-party defendants, or witnesses who weren't in the original conflicts run. Search the conflicts database against current clients, former clients, and adverse parties under Rules 1.7 and 1.9.

    Collects list
  2. Escalate conflict hits to the managing partner

    • Document the hit, the analysis, and the decision (decline / accept with waiver / screen). A waiver letter signed by the affected client(s) must be in the file before filing.

  3. Confirm Rule 11 good-faith basis for every claim

    • Each factual contention has evidentiary support; each legal contention is warranted by existing law or a non-frivolous extension. Note any claim made on "information and belief" with the supporting basis in the file memo.

8

Final Sign-Off and Filing

  1. Obtain responsible attorney signature
    Collects signature
  2. E-file via CM/ECF or the state portal

    • File no later than 4 hours before the midnight cutoff to leave room for portal errors. Save the Notice of Electronic Filing (NEF) and confirmation receipt to the matter file — that is your proof of timely filing.

    Collects file Collects datetime