To present a legal argument or claim that directly opposes or responds to another person's plea in court.
From counter- (against, opposite) + plead (to make an argument). Developed in legal English around the 16th-17th centuries when adversarial court procedures required formal written responses to claims.
In medieval and early modern courts, each side had to formally 'plead' their case, creating a precise dance of legal arguments—counterpleading was literally arguing back in the official language of the law, establishing the foundation for modern adversarial justice.
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