Detail about detail

Originally published by David Coale.

A substantial body of law, focused on the requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, defines the appropriate level of specificity for a plaintiff’s complaint. Pleading specificity can interact with other bodies of law as well, such as insurance coverage, where additional detail can affect an “eight-corners” analysis of whether the allegations fall within coverage. Another illustrative, if infrequent, situation appeared in the FCA case of United States ex rel. Hendrickson v. Bank of America, N.A., where a plaintiff’s lack of detail fed into the defendants’ defense of public disclosure: “Not disputing that the six documents constituted public disclosures, Hendrickson claims they do not disclose substantially the same allegations as his complaint because they do not reference DNEs or name specific banks. The banks respond that the documents’ disclosures are as specific as the complaint, which fails to allege particular instances of their receiving DNEs or differentiate allegations made against each defendant.” No. 18-11472 (Oct. 7, 2019).

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