The prayer for relief is the part of complaint where a plaintiff states the damages or other remedies it is seeking from the court in a lawsuit. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 8(a)(3) requires that a plaintiff’s pleadings contains a prayer for relief. The prayer is often located at the end of the complaint. There are two types of relief which a plaintiff often requests, special prayer and general prayer. A special prayer is a particular relief that the plaintiff claims to be entitled to, such as actual damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees. A general prayer is an unspecified request for any other relief that the court deems the plaintiff is entitled to, as a court is not limited to granting the relief which the plaintiff requests. Prayer for relief is also called demand for relief.
[Last updated in July of 2020 by the Wex Definitions Team]