cognovit

[kog-noh-vit]

noun

Law. an acknowledgment or confession by a defendant that the plaintiff's cause, or part of it, is just, wherefore the defendant, to save expense, permits judgment to be entered without trial.

Origin of cognovit

1755–65; < Latin: 3rd person singular perfect of cognōscere to recognize; see cognizance

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

“The wording of the cognovit”—one could speculate on that without seeing it.
Bardell v. Pickwick
Percy Fitzgerald
His great charge was that they had got a cognovit, or undertaking to pay their costs out of Mrs. Bardell—their own client!
Bardell v. Pickwick
Percy Fitzgerald
The matter, as we know, was compromised with Dodson and Fogg, so there was no need to scrutinize the Cognovit.
Bardell v. Pickwick
Percy Fitzgerald
Now to the superficial this seemed to be evaded by the art of the firm in “getting the cognovit out of her.”
Bardell v. Pickwick
Percy Fitzgerald
Dodson and Fogg,” replied the man; “execution on cognovit for costs.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, v. 2(of 2)
Charles Dickens