Amending an Alaska pleading: retype the whole thing, or it is not amended

Alaska's amendment rule follows the familiar pattern through subsections (a) to (d), and then adds a subsection with no counterpart anywhere else on this site. Rule 15(e) does not merely tell you how to format an amended pleading. It tells you that until you have, the pleading has not been amended.

One amendment as of course

Rule 15(a):

A party may amend the party's pleading once as a matter of course at any time before a responsive pleading is served or, if the pleading is one to which no responsive pleading is permitted and the action has not been placed upon the trial calendar, the party may so amend it at any time within 20 days after it is served. Otherwise a party may amend the party's pleading only by leave of court or by written consent of the adverse party; and leave shall be freely given when justice so requires.

Two windows, and the second carries a condition that Washington's CR 15(a) shares but the federal rule does not: even inside the 20 days, the route closes once the action is on the trial calendar.

The first window has no day count. Because Alaska gives a defendant 20 days to answer — 40 in the situations CR 12(a) lists — a plaintiff can amend as of course for that whole period. Federal Rule 15(a)(1) caps the equivalent window at 21 days.

The response — Rule 15(a): a party pleads in response to an amended pleading "within the time remaining for response to the original pleading or within 10 days after service of the amended pleading, whichever period may be the longer," unless the court orders otherwise.

Whichever is longer, so an early amendment does not shorten the defendant's original clock, and a late one still gives at least 10 days.

Rule 15(e): retype it, complete in itself

Unless otherwise permitted by the court, every pleading to which an amendment is permitted as a matter of right or has been allowed by order of the court, must be retyped or reprinted and filed so that it will be complete in itself, including the exhibits, without reference to the superseded pleading. No pleading will be deemed to be amended until this subdivision of this rule has been complied with. All amended pleadings shall contain copies of all exhibits referred to in such amended pleadings.

Three obligations and one consequence.

Retype or reprint the entire pleading. Not an amendment document listing changes, and not a page substitution. The whole thing.

Complete in itself, without reference to the superseded pleading. A reader must be able to understand the amended complaint without ever seeing the original.

Including the exhibits — attach copies of every exhibit the amended pleading refers to, even ones already on file with the original.

And the consequence: "No pleading will be deemed to be amended until this subdivision has been complied with." Leave to amend does not amend anything. A motion granted and never followed by a compliant retyped pleading leaves the original operative.

That is worth pausing on if you practise in a jurisdiction where an "Amendment to Complaint" adding a paragraph is normal. In Alaska it does not amend the complaint.

The exhibit-swap provision: "Permission may be obtained from the court, if desired, for the removal of any exhibit or exhibits attached to prior pleadings, in order that the same may be attached to the amended pleading." Useful for a bulky or original-only exhibit.

Amendments to conform to the evidence

Rule 15(b) covers two situations.

Tried by consent. "When issues not raised by the pleadings are tried by express or implied consent of the parties, they shall be treated in all respects as if they had been raised in the pleadings." An amendment to conform may be made on motion of any party "at any time, even after judgment; but failure so to amend does not affect the result of the trial of these issues."

Objection at trial. Where evidence is objected to as outside the issues made by the pleadings, "the court may allow the pleadings to be amended and shall do so freely when the presentation of the merits of the action will be subserved thereby and the objecting party fails to satisfy the court that the admission of such evidence would prejudice the party in maintaining the party's action or defense upon the merits."

The burden is on the objecting party, not the amending one. The court may also grant a continuance to let the objecting party meet the evidence.

Relation back

Rule 15(c): where the claim or defense in the amended pleading arose out of the conduct, transaction or occurrence set forth or attempted to be set forth in the original, the amendment relates back to the date of the original pleading.

For an amendment changing the party, the two familiar conditions apply — notice such that the new party will not be prejudiced in maintaining a defense on the merits, and knowledge that but for a mistake concerning identity the action would have been brought against them — and both must be satisfied

within the period provided by Rule 4(j) for service of the summons and complaint.

That cross-reference is the Alaska variation. Washington's CR 15(c) and Oregon's ORCP 23 C tie the window to "the period provided by law for commencing the action" — the limitations period. Alaska ties it to the service period in Rule 4(j), which is a different and generally later date. Check Rule 4(j) before assuming a party change relates back.

Supplemental pleadings

Rule 15(d): on motion, reasonable notice and just terms, the court may permit a supplemental pleading setting forth "transactions or occurrences or events which have happened since the date of the pleading sought to be supplemented."

"Permission may be granted even though the original pleading is defective in its statement of a claim for relief or defense." And if the court deems it advisable that the adverse party plead to the supplemental pleading, "it shall so order, specifying the time therefor."

A supplemental pleading always needs a motion; the as-of-course right in Rule 15(a) covers amendments only.

Where amendment meets waiver

Rule 12(h)(1) saves a personal jurisdiction, venue, process or service defence that is included "in a responsive pleading or an amendment thereof permitted by Rule 15(a) to be made as a matter of course."

So the saving route is the as-of-course amendment only. Once a responsive pleading has been served — or, for a pleading needing no response, once 20 days have run or the case is on the trial calendar — that window is shut, and leave to amend will not reopen it.

How Alaska compares

A short checklist

1. Check whether a responsive pleading has been served. If not, amend as of course.
2. For a pleading needing no response, check the trial calendar as well as the 20 days.
3. Retype the whole pleading. Complete in itself, no cross-references to the superseded version.
4. Attach every exhibit again — and ask the court if you need to move an original from the old filing.
5. Do not treat an order granting leave as the amendment. Until the compliant pleading is filed, nothing has changed.
6. Calendar the response — remaining time or 10 days from service, whichever is longer.
7. If limitations are in play on a party change, read Rule 4(j), not the limitations statute, for the window the notice conditions must be met in.
8. If you are preserving a Rule 12(h)(1) defence, do it in the as-of-course amendment. Leave will not revive it.

Where these rules live

• Alaska R. Civ. P. 4 — Process
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 8 — General rules of pleading
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 12 — Defenses and objections
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 15 — Amended and supplemental pleadings
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 16 — Pretrial conferences; scheduling; management
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 56 — Summary judgment

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice.