In a now infamous pair of decisions, Bell Atlantic v. Twombly in 2007 and Ashcroft v. Iqbal in 2009, the Supreme Court announced a new pleading standard that shook the foundations of federal litigation. The decisions allow district court judges to dismiss a complaint if it does not set out a “plausible” claim—a departure from the rule established in the 1957 case Conley v. Gibson that a court cannot dismiss a complaint unless it is apparent that the plaintiff could prove “no set of facts” that would entitle him to relief.
The defense bar heralded the decisions as a path to early dismissal of frivolous cases. Meanwhile, plaintiffs decried Iqbal as a barrier to legitimate claims. But according to a recent study by the Federal Judicial Center (FJC), neither prediction has come true.
