Notice pleading

For decades, federal courts used notice pleading, which was based on a famous case called Conley v. Gibson. Under that standard, a complaint could survive as long as it gave fair notice of the claim and the grounds for it. The Twombly and Iqbal decisions replaced that approach with a tougher plausibility standard in federal court. Many state courts still use notice pleading or some version of it. Knowing which standard applies in a given court is important because it changes how much detail the complaint needs.