intransitive verb. 1 : to argue a case or cause in a court of law. 2a : to make an allegation in an action or other legal proceeding especially : to answer the previous pleading of the other party by denying facts therein stated or by alleging new facts. b : to conduct pleadings.

English verb conjugation TO FINISH

• Indicative.
• Present. I finish. you finish.
• Present continuous. I am finishing. you are finishing.
• Preterite. I finished. you finished.
• Preterite continuous. I was finishing.
• Present perfect. I have finished.
• Present perfect continuous. I have been finishing.
• Pluperfect. I had finished.

Verb Forms of Finish

The past tense of complete is completed Conjugate Complete.

Verb Forms of Plead

So which is right: pled or pleaded? Regular readers probably hear this coming: Both forms are correct. The one you choose should depend on whose authority you accept. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary says the simple past tense and the past participle form are “pleaded or pled,” in that order.

Historically, “pleaded” has been considered the correct past tense and past participle form for several centuries now. The verb “to plead” has actually had two past tenses for quite a long time. The form “pled” goes back to the 1200s, and “pleaded” goes back almost as long.

You should also use pleaded as the participle, as in Squiggly has pleaded guilty. Some people do prefer pled, and the AP Stylebook calls it a colloquial past-tense form. Nevertheless, most lawyers use pleaded.

PLED is a valid scrabble word.

If you “plead guilty”, it means that you state in court that you are guilty of a crime. It may surprise you that the only form considered correct by traditional grammarians is “pleaded guilty” (pronounced PLEE-did).

Under common law, a defendant who pleads guilty is automatically convicted and the remainder of the trial is used to determine the sentence. This produces a system known as plea bargaining, in which defendants may plead guilty in exchange for a more lenient punishment.

Pleaded is the past tense form of the verb plead, which can mean to beg or, in a legal sense, to claim guilt or innocence. Pleaded has long been the preferred form of this word, and still predominates variants pled and plead by a rate of 3:1 and 13:1, respectively, according to Garner’s Modern American Usage.

These pleas include: not guilty, guilty, and no contest (nolo contendere). At Worgul, Sarna & Ness, Criminal Defense Attorneys, LLC, we know how to what’s on the line for you and how these different pleas can impact your life.

What are Pleadings?

• Complaint. A lawsuit begins when a plaintiff (the party suing) files a complaint against a defendant (the party being sued.)
• Answer. The answer is the defendant’s written response to the plaintiff’s complaint.
• Counterclaim.
• Cross-claim.
• Amended Pleadings.

“Plead” is a verb. “Plea” is a noun. After a person has admitted his guilt in court, he has not plead (or “pleaed”) guilty. The past tense of “to plead” is “pleaded” or “pled.”

Really, the criminal justice system was designed for people to plead not guilty instead of guilty. If you’re actually innocent of the crime, a not guilty plea is your only way to get justice and avoid criminal charges. Meanwhile, some plea bargains will do very little to help you out.

By pleading not guilty, the criminal defendant buys time. This gives his or her defense lawyer the opportunity to review the case and to assert all possible defenses. The criminal defense lawyer may explain the defendant’s rights.

Types of Criminal Pleas

• Guilty. Guilty is admitting to the offense or offenses.
• Not Guilty. Pleading not guilty is perhaps the most common plea entered in criminal court.
• No Contest.
• Withdrawing a Plea.

NOT GUILTY: means you formally deny committing the crime of which you are accused. If you plea Not Guilty, your case will proceed towards a trial where the State must prove you guilty of the crime. GUILTY: means you formally admit to committing the crime of which you are accused.

If you are found guilty after a trial or after pleading guilty, the Judge will impose a sentence. You should talk to your lawyer or court worker about what happened in court. They will tell you if you have to pay a fine, meet with a probation officer, or follow any special rules. The judge may put you on probation.

Nolo contendere or “no contest” Essentially the same as a guilty plea, a “no contest” plea results in a California criminal conviction. When you plead “no contest”, you are not technically admitting guilt but are still allowing the court to determine your punishment.

In exchange for pleading guilty, the criminal defendant may receive a lighter sentence or have charges reduced. Additionally, pleading guilty avoids the uncertainty of a trial. Juries can be unpredictable. Prosecutors may uncover additional evidence that can make it more likely for a jury to convict the defendant.

You can pay the fine, which is similar to pleading guilty. You can plead guilty with an explanation or plead nolo contendere, which are useful only in certain situations. This involves entering your plea in court before a judge.

nolo contendere

The benefit of a no-contest plea (when you admit the facts, but not your guilt) is that it allows you to avoid a trial if your defense has become hopeless, but it prevents the plea from being used against you in any later civil or criminal proceeding.

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees that an individual cannot be compelled by the government to provide incriminating information about herself – the so-called “right to remain silent.” When an individual “takes the Fifth,” she invokes that right and refuses to answer questions or provide …

When a team does not appear (e.g., due to weather conditions, accidents, breakdown of vehicles, illness or catastrophic causes), a forfeit is not recorded. An institution shall not, for statistical purposes, declare a forfeit for nonfulfillment of a contract. Such instances shall be considered as “no contest.”

In the event of a no-contest, there is no forfeit, nor any record of a contest played. If a forfeit occurs during the game or after a game is played, the final score and all game statistics stand, and only the teams’ win-loss records are changed to reflect the forfeit.

No contest (abbreviated “NC”) is a technical term used in some combat sports to describe a fight that ends for reasons outside the fighters’ hands, without a winner or loser.