[BILL OF PARTICULARS – A detailed informal statement of a plaintiff’s cause of action, or of the defendants’s set-off.
In all actions in which the plaintiff declares generally, without specifying his cause of action, a judge upon application will order him to give the defendant a bill of the particulars, and in the meantime stay proceedings. And when the defendant gives notice or pleads a set-off, he will be required to give a bill of the particulars of his set-off, on failure of which he will be precluded from giving any evidence in support of it at the trial. The object in both cases is to prevent surprise and procure a fair trial. The bill of particulars is an account of the items of the demand and states in what manner they arose.]