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Miss. R. Civ. P. 2

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Rule 2 One Form of Action

Chapter I: Scope of Rules - One Form of Action

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Rule Text

There shall be one form of action to be known as “civil action.”

Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)

This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.

Mississippi used to have different types of lawsuits with different names and rules, depending on what kind of legal claim someone was making. This rule gets rid of all those separate categories. Now, no matter what the dispute is about, there's just one type of lawsuit: a "civil action."

This matters because it makes going to court simpler. People filing a lawsuit don't have to worry about picking the "right" old-fashioned label for their case or following different procedures based on that label. They just file a civil action and follow the same set of rules that apply to everyone, whether the case is about a contract, an injury, property, or something else.

Committee Notes

Advisory Committee Notes

Rule 2 does not affect the various remedies that previously have been available in the courts of Mississippi. The abolition of the forms of action furnishes a single, uniform procedure by which a litigant may present a claim in an orderly manner to a court empowered to give whatever relief is appropriate and just; the substantive and remedial principles that applied prior to the advent of these rules are not changed. What was an action at law before these rules is still a civil action founded on legal principles and what was a bill in equity before these rules is still a civil action founded upon equitable principles.

CHAPTER II. COMMENCEMENT OF ACTION: SERVICE OF PROCESS, PLEADINGS, MOTIONS, AND ORDERS