Pleading

The process of making allegation in a cause by a series of ■written statements proceeding from the parties in alternate order, so as to develop the essential point in controversy, termed the issue; at law, that system or science of statement in the common law by which the allegations of the respective parties are so regulated as to produce a single, certain and material issue; in equity, the formal method of placing the statements of the parties before the court, — a less technical procedure than pleading at law, the substance of the statements being regarded, rather than their precise verbal form.