nisi prius

American  

[nahy-sahy prahy-uhs, nee-see pree-uhs] / ˈnaɪ saɪ ˈpraɪ əs, ˈni si ˈpri əs /

noun

Law.

1. Also called nisi prius court.  a trial court for the hearing of civil cases before a judge and jury.

2. British Law.

   1. a writ commanding a sheriff of a county to summon a jury and bring it to the court in Westminster on a certain day, unless the judges of assizes previously came to that county.

   2. the clause with the words “nisi prius” introducing this writ.

   3. the system of judicial circuits to which judges are assigned for local trials of civil and criminal cases.

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nisi prius British  

/ ˈpraɪəs /

noun

1. English legal history

   1. a direction that a case be brought up to Westminster for trial before a single judge and a jury

   2. the writ giving this direction

   3. trial before the justices taking the assizes

2. (in the US) a court where civil actions are tried by a single judge sitting with a jury, as distinguished from an appellate court

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Other Word Forms

• nisi-prius adjective

Etymology

Origin of nisi prius

1300–50; Middle English < Latin: literally, unless previously, unless before

Example Sentences

As my business continued to increase, it took me more and more from the ordinary nisi prius, and kept me perpetually employed in special matters.

From The Reminiscences of Sir Henry Hawkins (Baron Brampton) by Brampton, Henry Hawkins, Baron

His mind was too broad, his ambition too high, to be a mere lawyer, tied down with red tape to nisi prius precedents and the dicta of cases.

From Sketches of Reforms and Reformers, of Great Britain and Ireland by Stanton, Henry B.

Ruminating over this, he hastened on to a nisi prius case.

From Sir Brook Fossbrooke, Volume I. by Lever, Charles James

He had, "as he deserved, the reputation of being the best nisi prius lawyer in the state."

From Lincoln; An Account of his Personal Life, Especially of its Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War by Stephenson, Nathaniel W. (Nathaniel Wright)

The archipelago had been divided by the Taft Commission into fifteen judicial districts, containing three or four provinces each,—each district court to be a nisi prius or trial court.

From The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by Blount, James H.