Once a complaint has been filed, defendants have a finite period
of time to decide what to do next. Among the list of options are:
(a) ignore it (the U.S. is overly litigious anyways); (b) answer
the allegations; (c) move to dismiss; or (d) cower in fear and
settle immediately. More often than not, defendants choose option
(c).
The reality of moving to dismiss, however, is that the moving
party often lacks a credible basis for dismissing the entire
complaint. As a result, defendants frequently file a partial motion
to dismiss on the day that a responsive pleading is due under the
court's rules (or some other date that the parties have agreed
to file and serve a response). In circumstances where a plaintiff
has filed a partial motion to dismiss, the parties usually —
without formal agreement — focus their efforts on the partial
motion, ignoring the fact that as of the deadline to file a
responsive pleading, the defendant has not answered those
allegations that are
