A recent Supreme Court decision on pleading may close the courthouse to people who previously were able to sue, We believe that the policy questions should have been addressed in the more transparent and democratic process of rulemaking, where they would have been subject to public comment and to congressional review. Convinced that pleading should play a more limited role in litigation, the drafters hoped that liberal discovery methods (e.g., interrogatories, depositions, and document requests) would (1) unearth the facts prior to trial, making trials more efficient, and (2) in conjunction with a liberal rule on amendments to pleadings and with pre-trial procedure, including the motion for summary judgment, enable a more informed and finely tuned elimination (or narrowing) of the issues.

Supreme Court decisions
Amendments
Interest groups
Federal court decisions
Summary judgment