Affirmative Tort In Court Cases

471 Words1 Page

An answer is a pleading by the defendant that challenges the plaintiff’s right to the relief requested in the complaint. In most cases, an answer contest most of the facts in a complaint. An answer is a pleading and as such follows the same general format as the complaint or petition in the case (Kerley, Hames, & Sukys, 2009). Answers are prepared using the three formats the general denial, the specific denial, or the qualified denial. Answers can contain affirmative defenses. General denial is usually one paragraph or allegation in which the defendant denies all of the allegations contained in a civil complaint. If the defendant denies every allegation in the complaint, the defendant must contest all of the allegations. If the defendant does not contest the allegations, they could face possible sanctions. Since the defendant is denying each and every allegation, there are rules that require the defendant to deny the allegations in good faith. Specific denial refers to the defendant responding to each disagreement and section of the complaint. For example, a specific denial is an answer in which the defendant specifically replies to each contention or paragraph alleged in the complaint. The defendant replies to the various contentions by admitting them, denying them, or denying them on …show more content…

When the defendant uses qualified denial, they start by admitting or denying certain allegations. Then they obviously deny all the other allegations. While working in the legal field I have come across many qualified denials. For example, in a recent case a bakery was being sued by a customer. The customer was claiming that the baker used rat poisoning on some of the pastries and most of the other pastries were expired. The baker responded with a qualified denial claiming that yes he admits some of the pastries may have been expired, but denies ever using rat

Open Document