Form of Pleadings

(a) CAPTION; NAMES OF PARTIES. Every pleading must have a cap- tion with the court’s name, a title, a file number, and a Rule 7(a) designation. The title of the complaint must name all the parties; the title of other pleadings, after naming the first party on each side, may refer generally to other parties. (b) PARAGRAPHS; SEPARATE STATEMENTS. A party must state its claims or defenses in numbered paragraphs, each limited as far as practicable to a single set of circumstances. A later pleading may refer by number to a paragraph in an earlier pleading. If doing so would promote clarity, each claim founded on a separate trans- action or occurrence—and each defense other than a denial—must be stated in a separate count or defense. Rule 11 FEDERAL RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE 18 (c) ADOPTION BY REFERENCE; EXHIBITS. A statement in a pleading may be adopted by reference elsewhere in the same pleading or in any other pleading or motion. A copy of a written instrument that is an exhibit to a pleading is a part of the pleading for all pur- poses. (As amended Apr. 30, 2007, eff. Dec. 1, 2007.)