Title LIII, Proceedings in Court

Individual retirement accounts or simplified employee pensions, as defined by section 408 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, shall be subject to seizure, setoff, or attachment for the benefit of creditors only by means of legal process, and not by uni…

If, in an action before a municipal court, the defendant pleads a setoff or files a setoff with the general issue which exceeds the jurisdiction of the court, and accompanies it with an affidavit that the claims mentioned in the setoff are, in his belief, justly due and owing to …

If the plaintiff does not elect to become nonsuited he may enter the action at the next term of the superior court, filing with the clerk attested copies of all papers in the case, and may prosecute the action in that court as if originally begun therein.

In any action the defendant may file a confession of the plaintiff's right to recover certain real estate, or a certain amount of debt or damages, and plead to the residue of his claim; and if the plaintiff further prosecutes the action, and fails to recover more than is so confe…

No special plea shall be required in a civil action, except a plea of title to real estate in actions in municipal courts; but any defense may be proved under the general issue, upon a brief statement thereof being filed in such time as the court may order.

When the defendant pleads one or more special pleas the plaintiff may reply thereto all such matters as may be material in answer to or avoidance of the matters alleged therein, and for that purpose may file as many separate replications as the case requires.

If, upon the trial of the issues upon such pleadings, either party maintains by his evidence such of the matters by him pleaded as would constitute an answer to or avoidance of the matters pleaded by the other party such issue shall be considered to be maintained by the party pro…

In actions for libel or slander, under the general issue, the defendant may prove, in mitigation of damages and to rebut evidence of actual malice, that the writing or words complained of were the repetition of common report, and that the conduct of the plaintiff was such as to c…

If there are mutual debts or demands between the plaintiff and defendant at the time of the commencement of the plaintiff's action, one debt or demand may be set off against the other.

No debt or demand shall be set off as aforesaid unless a right of action existed thereon at the beginning of the plaintiff's action.

Mutual debts or demands, though contingent, existing between a person deceased and another person, when due, may be set off in actions by or against the administrator.