common pleas

American  

plural noun

Law.

1. civil actions or proceedings between private citizens.

2. Also Common Pleas court of common pleas.

---

common pleas British  

noun

1. short for Court of Common Pleas

---

Etymology

Origin of common pleas

Middle English word dating back to 1175–1225

Example Sentences

Two really common pleas are solicitation and misprision.

From Slate • Jun. 10, 2020

He served as an assistant Ohio attorney general and a municipal judge, and he was elected Hamilton County common pleas judge in 1964 — as a Republican overcoming the Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic presidential landslide.

From Washington Post • May 21, 2020

Summit county common pleas judge Joy Malek Oldfield sees about 50 felony offenders in her drug court every Monday morning.

From The Guardian • Sep. 12, 2019

In one extreme instance, a common pleas judge became incensed when a prosecutor refused to follow her orders to charge a probation violation before a new weapons arrest.

From New York Times • Oct. 30, 2018

And the old common law courts—the king’s bench, common pleas and exchequer—were always, as compared with the court of chancery, distinguished for a certain narrowness and technicality of reasoning.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 7 "Columbus" to "Condottiere" by Various