A motion for more definite statement in many jurisdictions in the United States, and under United States federal law, is a means of obtaining a more detailed motion from the opposing party in a civil case before interposing a responsive pleading.
In federal jurisprudence, the motion is permitted by Rule 12(e) of The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The presiding judge will respond either by granting the motion or striking it from the record if it is found to be without legal merit. The motion must contain a point-by-point rebuttal, with each point numbered, and ideally should reference some case law in support of the motion.
In the Commonwealth of Virginia, a motion seeking such relief is called a motion for a bill of particulars.
Famous quotes containing the words motion, definite and/or statement:
“The moments of the past do not remain still; they retain in our memory the motion which drew them towards the future, towards a future which has itself become the past, and draw us on in their train.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The artistic temperament is a disease that affects amateurs.... Artists of a large and wholesome vitality get rid of their art easily, as they breathe easily or perspire easily. But in artists of less force, the thing becomes a pressure, and produces a definite pain, which is called the artistic temperament.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Truth is used to vitalize a statement rather than devitalize it. Truth implies more than a simple statement of fact. “I don’t have any whisky,” may be a fact but it is not a truth.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)