Editing Demurrer (section)

{{Short description|Legal document}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2021}}
{{Civil procedure (United States)}}
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A '''demurrer''' is a [[pleading]] in a [[lawsuit]] that objects to or challenges a pleading filed by an opposing [[Party (law)|party]]. The word ''demur'' means "to object"; a ''demurrer'' is the document that makes the objection. Lawyers informally define a demurrer as a defendant saying "So what?" to the pleading.<ref name="Pyle_Page_183">{{cite book |last1=Pyle |first1=Ransford C. |last2=Bast |first2=Carol M. |title=Foundations of Law: Cases, Commentary and Ethics |date=2017 |publisher=Cengage Learning |location=Boston |isbn=9781305856387 |page=183 |edition=6th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vLoaCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA183 |access-date=1 November 2021}}</ref>

Typically, the [[defendant]] in a case will demur to the [[complaint]], but it is also possible for the [[plaintiff]] to demur to an [[Answer (law)|answer]]. The demurrer challenges the legal sufficiency of a cause of action in a complaint or of an affirmative defense in an answer. If a [[cause of action]] in a complaint does not state a cognizable claim or if it does not state all the required [[element (criminal law)|elements]], then the challenged cause of action or possibly the entire complaint can be dismissed at the demurrer stage as not legally sufficient. A demurrer is typically filed near the beginning of a case in response to the plaintiff filing a complaint or the defendant answering the complaint.

In [[common law]], a demurrer was the pleading through which a defendant challenged the legal sufficiency of a complaint in [[criminal law|criminal]] or [[civil law (common law)|civil]] cases. Today, however, the pleading has been discontinued in many [[jurisdiction]]s, including the [[United Kingdom]], the [[United States federal courts|U.S. federal court system]], and most U.S. states (though some states, including [[California law|California]], Pennsylvania, and [[Virginia Circuit Court#The demurrer|Virginia]], retain it).  In criminal cases, a demurrer was considered a [[common law]] [[due process]] right, to be heard and decided before the defendant was required to plead "not guilty," or make any other pleading in response, without having to admit or deny any of the facts [[Allegation|alleged]].

A demurrer generally ''assumes'' the truth of all material facts alleged in the complaint, and the defendant cannot present evidence to the contrary, even if those facts appear to be obvious fabrications by the plaintiff or are likely to be easily disproved during [[Lawsuit|litigation]]. That is, the point of the demurrer is to test whether a cause of action or affirmative defense ''as pleaded'' is legally insufficient, even if all facts pleaded are assumed to be true.

The sole exception to the no-evidence rule is that a court may take [[judicial notice]] of certain things. For example, the court can take judicial notice of commonly known facts not reasonably subject to challenge, such as the [[Gregorian calendar]], or of [[public record]]s, such as a published legislative report showing the intent of the legislature in enacting a particular statute.