Dear 1L, You will write the words “plaintiff” and “defendant” a TON this year.
Dear 1L, You will write the words “plaintiff” and “defendant” a TON this year. But there’s a trap: sometimes you capitalize them, and sometimes you don’t.
Here’s the convention to follow:
🔷 When to keep them lowercase—
Use lowercase when you’re speaking in the abstract or referring to parties in other cases.
Examples:
▪️ “To state a claim for negligence, a plaintiff must prove four elements.”
▪️ “The defendant bears the burden on its affirmative defense.”
▪️ “In Smith v. ABC, the plaintiff could not show probable cause. The reasoning in Smith should control here.”
In all these sentences, you’re talking about a generic plaintiff or defendant or the parties in another case—not the parties in your case—so you keep them lowercase.
🔷 When to capitalize them—
Capitalize when you’re talking about the parties in your case, the one your memo or brief is analyzing. Readers will assume capital letters mean you’re designating your case’s parties.
Examples:
▪️ “To prevail here, Plaintiff must establish all four elements of a prima facie case.”
▪️ “Defendant can defeat Plaintiff’s claim by proving its affirmative defense.”
▪️ “Because Plaintiff has failed to meet her burden, the Court should dismiss her complaint.”
Here, “Plaintiff” and “Defendant” are capitalized because they’re the actual parties before the court—the ones you’re writing about.
🔷 The mixed situation—
Often, you’ll start abstractly and then zoom in on your facts. Watch how to signal to your reader which parties you are talking about through your choices on capitalization:
▪️ “To state a negligence claim, a plaintiff must prove four elements. Here, Plaintiff has produced no evidence of causation.”
▪️ “A defendant generally has no duty to act. But here, Defendant affirmatively undertook to warn Plaintiff—and failed.”
🔷 A few pro tips—
—Capitalization itself signals you’re talking about your case. You don’t have to define “the Plaintiff” or “the Defendant” first, although you may.
—Be consistent. Once you pick a convention, stick to it throughout your memo or brief.
—When there are multiple parties, rely on names where clarity matters (e.g., “Plaintiff Jones” or “Defendant Smith”) rather than the generic label.
👉 Bottom line: lowercase for generic and other cases; uppercase for your case.
Let me know if you have any questions!!
💌 Amanda
P.S. I once had an attorney client who was clerking for a judge who loathed capitalization. She wanted the lowercase “plaintiff” and “defendant” used even when referring to the parties in the case before her.
So guess what? We abandoned the standard convention and gave the judge what she wanted.
👉 Your primary reader’s preferences take precedence over lawyers’ default conventions. So make sure you know what YOUR reader requires. (Some battles are not worth fighting!)
#Dear1L