Amendment of Pleadings Law and Legal Definition
Rule 15(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides for amendments of the pleadings. A party can amend his/her protest, petition, appeal, application for review, or other pleadings or process at any time by leave of court. Such leave shall be freely granted when justice so requires. The theory behind the right to amend pleadings is that by such amendment, the pleadings are brought in line with the actual issues upon which the case was tried, although such issues were not stated in the original pleadings. In such situations, it is the duty of the court to permit the amendment once the evidence upon the supposed issue has been introduced without objection.
