An abatement in pleading, or plea in abatement, was a defence in

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

to legal proceedings that did not contest the principle of the

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...

's right to relief but contended that the plaintiff had made a procedural error and needed to bring fresh proceedings, which followed the correct procedure. The objection could deal with (among others) place, time, or method of assertion. The plea in abatement was abolished as a particular form of response by the defendant when common-law pleading was replaced by Code Pleading and later by pleading rules, such as the

federal Rules of Civil Procedure The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (officially abbreviated Fed. R. Civ. P.; colloquially FRCP) govern civil procedure in United States district courts. They are the companion to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Rules promulgated by the ...

. Successful assertion of pleas in abatement merely paused proceedings until the problem was remedied. There were two fundamental styles of abatement. The first was abatement in proceedings, which would merely suspend the proceeding until the error was fixed. Abatement in law would terminate it completely although it could be restarted at the plaintiff's request. The second term is more common. It has now been abolished, in most if not all, common law jurisdictions.

References

Common law Defense (legal) {{law-term-stub