An abatement in pleading, or plea in abatement, was a defence in common law to legal proceedings that did not contest the principle of the plaintiff's right to relief but contended that the plaintiff had made a procedural error and needed to bring fresh proceedings, which followed the correct procedure.
[1][2] The objection could deal with (among others) place, time, or method of assertion.
The plea in abatement was abolished as a particular form of response by the defendant when common-law pleading was replaced by Code Pleading and later by pleading rules, such as the federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
[3][4] Successful assertion of pleas in abatement merely paused proceedings until the problem was remedied.
Abatement in law would terminate it completely although it could be restarted at the plaintiff's request.