Reply - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition reply

Definition :

Reply, the response of the opening counsel on a trial, which is only allowed when evidence has been given in answer to the case first stated, except in the case of the Crown, which is always entitled to reply. See Criminal Procedure Act, 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 18), which applies to civil as well as criminal cases.

Also the pleading of the plaintiff which follows the defendant's statement of his defence or counter-claim (see R.S.C. 1883, Ord. XXIII.), by which (r. 1), where plaintiff desires to deliver a reply, he shall deliver it within seven days from the delivery of the defence; (r. 2), when a counterclaim is pleaded, a reply thereto shall be subject to the rules applicable to defences. See ISSUE and PLEADING.

In federal practice, the plaintiff's response to the defendant's counterclaim (or, by court order, to the defendant's or a third party answer), Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1302.