consent decree

noun

Law.

1. an agreement, approved by the court, pursuant to which the defendant ceases activities alleged by the government to be illegal and the government's action is dropped, especially in antitrust and other regulatory matters.

2. an agreement made in court by the parties to settle a suit in equity.

Word History and Origins

Origin of consent decree¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

Among SoCalGas’s settlement agreements was a $120-million consent decree with the state of California requiring the utility to fund methane mitigation projects, air monitoring and other initiatives to address alleged harms caused by the blowout.

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Two years earlier, a federal judge had appointed Bobb to serve as independent monitor of the Seattle Police Department’s consent decree with the U.S.

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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, though, said this week that his city would still "comply with every sentence, of every paragraph, of the 169-page consent decree that we signed this year".

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“We definitely want to see them have a consent decree. I don’t know if that’s going to be possible,” said Gage.

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Minneapolis in January approved a consent decree with the federal government in the final days of the Biden administration to overhaul its training and use-of-force policies under court supervision.

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