Complaint

In Criminal Law. The allegation made to a proper officer that some person, whether known or unknown, has the offender may be punished. It is a technical term, descriptive of proceedings before a magistrate.

Com. v. Davis. 11 Pick. (Mass.) 436.

To have a legal effect, the complaint must be supported by Buch ev4dei iws that an offence has been committed and it certain or probable that it was committed by the person named or described in the complaint. The fact that a complaint is drawn in flagrant disregard of tbe rules of pleading is not sufficient to support a demurrer ther if the allegations le of a construction that will support tbe action; 1'.

Nat Bank v. Bank. 18 X. Y. Supp. 758.

In Practice. The name given in New York and other states to the statement of the plaintiff's case which takes tbe place of the declaration in common-law pleading.