Definition
A French-origin legal term meaning to delay, retard, or put off. In French law, the phrase *accrocher un procès* denotes the act of staying or suspending the proceedings in a suit — placing a matter in a state of temporary halt rather than advancing it toward resolution.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in sources treating French civil procedure or in English legal dictionaries that preserved French law vocabulary during the 18th and 19th centuries. Researchers are unlikely to encounter it in Anglo-American case law or statutes. Its primary research value is as a bridge term: when reading historical materials that blend common law and civil law traditions — particularly texts touching on Louisiana, Quebec, or French colonial legal practice — this word may appear untranslated. Recognizing it prevents misreading a procedural posture. The term belongs to a cluster of French procedural vocabulary absorbed into Anglo-American legal dictionaries largely for reference completeness rather than active domestic use. Researchers working in Louisiana civil law materials should be aware that the functional equivalent in modern Louisiana practice would be a stay or *sursis*, not a term that carries forward as *acorocher* itself.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed., Supplemental) is the sole source among standard Anglo-American legal dictionaries to record this term. The entry is brief: it defines the term as meaning to delay, retard, or put off, and supplies the illustrative phrase *accrocher un procès* — to stay the proceedings in a suit. No further doctrinal context is provided. The sparseness of the entry is itself informative: Black's was collecting French civil law vocabulary for completeness, not because the term had active circulation in American courts. No comparable entry appears in Bouvier's Law Dictionary or Burrill's Law Dictionary, suggesting that even among 19th-century compilers, this term was considered marginal to Anglo-American practice. Researchers should not expect to find the term defined or discussed in common law treatises.
Jurisdictional Note
The term is drawn from French civil procedure and has no direct common law counterpart as a term of art. Its practical relevance in the United States is limited to Louisiana and to historical materials arising from French colonial legal contexts.