Notice Pleading in Exile

Abstract

According to the conventional wisdom, the Supreme Court's 2009 decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal discarded notice pleading in favor of plausibility pleading. This Article — part of a symposium commemorating the Iqbal decision's tenth anniversary — highlights decisions during those ten years that have continued to endorse notice pleading despite Iqbal. It also argues that those decisions reflect the best way to read the Iqbal decision. Although Iqbal is a troubling decision in many respects, it can be implemented consistently with the notice-pleading framework that the original drafters of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure had in mind.

Keywords: Iqbal, Twombly, Pleading, Notice Pleading, Plausibility Pleading, Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

JEL Classification: K00, K10, K40, K41