Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

bill,

n. 1. A formal written complaint, such as a court paper requesting some specific action for reasons alleged. 2. An equitable pleading by which a claimant brings a claim in a court of equity. 0 Before the merger of law and equity, the bill in equity was analogous to a declaration in law. The nine parts of every equitable bill are (1) the address to the person holding the great seal, (2) the introduction, which identifies the parties, (3) the premises, which state the plaintiff's case, (4) the confederating part, in which the defendants are charged with combination, (5) the charging part, in which the plaintiff' may try to overcome defenses that the defendants may allege, (6) the jurisdictional clause, showing that the court has jurisdiction, (7) the interrogating part, inserted to try to compel a full and complete answer, (8) the prayer for relief, and (9) the prayer for process to compel the defendants to appear and answer. - Also termed bill in equity. See DECLARATION (7). "The statement of the plaintiff's cause of action in equity is called the bill. To this bill the defendant (unless he could protect himself by a demurrer or a plea) was obliged to put in an answer under oath." George Tucker Bispham, The Principles of Equity: A Treatise on the System of Justice Administered in Courts of Chancery § 9, at 12 (11th ed. 1931).