What is a leave to plead?

Answer 1

"Leave to plead" is the allowance by the court to file a particular type of pleading even though technically, you may be barred by court rules or statute from filing the pleading. As an example, a defendant normally has a limited number of days within which to file an Answer. After the time expires defendant will be allowed to file out of time only if the plaintiff consents or in some cases only if the court consents. If the defendant needs the court's consent, application is made for "leave to plead" defendant's answer. If the court grants leave to plead, the defendant may file the Answer as if it had been filed within the time originally required. The phrase also applies to adding different types of defenses or claims that may have been left out of pleadings already filed. If, for example, a defendant filed the usual answer denying plaintiff's claims, but later realized he should have included several affirmative defenses as well, he might have to get the court's permission to amend his original answer by adding the affirmative defenses. Here, defendant would be granted leave to plead the specific affirmative defenses he needs.

Answer 2

In legal terms asking "leave" is asking the permission of the court to be allowed to do something. A pleading is defined as "a complaint and answer; a reply to a counterclaim; an answer to a cross-claim; and/or a third party complaint and answer.

Thus, "a leave to plead" is asking the permission of the court to to either file a complaint or to file an answer to a complaint.

Answer 3

What is a leave