Art. 862 Relief granted under pleadings; sufficiency of prayer

Here's what this rule means. When a court makes a final decision in a case, the judge can give a person the relief they deserve based on the facts and law, even if that person did not specifically ask for it in their paperwork. The person does not have to include special legal wording asking for "general and equitable relief" to get what they are owed.

In simple terms, judges are not limited to only what was written down in the request. If the evidence shows a person deserves a certain outcome, the judge can order it, even if it was not spelled out ahead of time in the pleadings. This protects people from losing out on fair treatment just because their lawyer or they themselves left something out of the written request.

There is one exception to this rule. It does not apply to default judgments, which are covered under a different rule (Article 1703). Default judgments happen when one side does not respond to a lawsuit at all, and those cases follow stricter rules about what the judge can award.