Reply
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
1.
Generally, reply is appropriate to a response to an answer. In respect to correspondence, it is accurate to speak of a letter, answer, and reply.
2.
In parlance of the courts, the speech of counsel for the plaintiff in a civil case, or for the prosecution in a criminal case, in answer in either case to the points raised by the defence, is generally called the reply.
3.
Under codes of reformed procedure, reply is very generally the name of the response made by a plaintiff to the answer interposed by defendant, and corresponds to "replication" in commonlaw or equity practice. It is, however, believed to be necessary only where new matter constituting a counter-claim is interposed in the answer, or where, on consideration of special reasons, the court orders a reply. Where no counterclaim is inteiposed, the cause proceeds as if the matters alleged in the answer were formally denied. The term reply is also undei-stood to have been introduced in the practice under the judicature acts.