Is there a list of the civil actions allowed in Federal District Courts?

Full question:

Where can I find a list of all the civil 'causes of action' which would be acceptable to Federal Court in Virginia, in the filing of a complaint there? Also, in Virginia, does 'Fraud' include making promises about the future with no intent to keep them, or does Fraud in VA refer only to statements about objects eg. provenance of art works etc.?

• Category: Civil Actions
• Date: 04/07/2025
• State: Pennsylvania

Answer:

All courts, including the federal district courts (in Virginia and elsewhere), are far more open to the manifold and various claims of litigants than your question presupposes. The rules of civil procedure provide the template that lawyers learn and that lawyers and judges use throughout their careers to determine whether a litigant's claim or defense is legally cognizable. Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), initially adopted in the 1930's, a litigant's pleadings, whether claim or defense, must state a "claim for relief," and the degree of specificity required of any pleading, whether claim or defense, is "notice." Lawyers generally refer to the style of pleading required by the FRCPs as "notice pleading." State rules of civil procedure, many of which are now modeled on the FRCPs, generally require a more specific style of pleading, sometimes referred to as "code pleading."

To give you the information you seek, I have appended as links below, several articles on the US Legal website that refer to civil procedure definitionaly, one summary on civil procedure that includes information on the FRCPs, and one article on fraud.

In law, fraud generally refers to an actor's conduct (commission or omission) that involves a knowing misrepresentation or a concealment of a material fact made in order to induce another to act (or fail to act) to his or her detriment. Generally, fraud is either a tort (a civil wrong done by one to another) or a crime (an offense against the state), but in some instances in contract law it is an actor's unconscionable dealings with another, particularly, an actor's use of the parties' relative bargaining strengths so as to obtain an unconscionable bargain (known as "conduct that shocks the conscience of the court").
Fraud as a legal concept is not restricted to any one field of human endeavor; it is applicable to all areas of human activity.