Definition
Latin: "it is allowed." A formal certification or notation indicating judicial approval of a writ, order, or proceeding. The term carries two historically distinct but related applications:
1. General allowance. In older English and American practice, a word inscribed on a writ or order to signify that a judge or court had approved it. The term functioned as an operative endorsement — the document did not proceed without it.
2. Taxation of costs. In English practice, a certificate issued by a master or prothonotary (court clerk) following the taxation (auditing) of a bill of costs, recording the amount allowed. This usage survived longer in practice than the general writ-allowance sense.
3. Pennsylvania appellate practice (modern survival). In contemporary usage, allocatur refers specifically to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's discretionary grant of review — the functional equivalent of certiorari in federal practice. A petition for allowance of appeal is granted by allocatur. This is the term's primary living usage in American law.
Common Confusion
Researchers encountering allocatur in historical sources must resist reading it through the lens of modern Pennsylvania practice. In an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century English document, allocatur signals judicial approval of a writ or a master's cost certificate — not appellate review. The term's meaning did not evolve so much as it narrowed: Pennsylvania retained and repurposed one specific application (judicial allowance of appellate jurisdiction) while English practice absorbed the function into other procedural terminology. Non allocatur — "it is not allowed" — is the corresponding denial, and appears in older criminal pleading records in the same contexts.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Special allocatur. The formal allowance of a writ of error in cases where such allowance was specifically required before the writ could issue. Not all writs of error required special allocatur; its necessity depended on the nature of the case and the court. Black's 2nd edition and Anderson both identify this as a distinct sub-form.
Non allocatur. The denial counterpart. Functionally the opposite endorsement, signifying that the writ, order, or bill was not approved.
Why It Matters in Research
The term is a research trap precisely because it is still in active use in one jurisdiction while being purely historical everywhere else. A researcher working in Pennsylvania appellate materials will encounter allocatur as a living procedural term with a developed modern body of case law. A researcher working in English common law records, colonial American court documents, or nineteenth-century federal materials will find it as either a clerical endorsement on writs or a master's cost certification — meanings with no direct Pennsylvania analog.
Several specific navigational points:
First, cost-taxation records. When allocatur appears in Chancery or common law cost proceedings, it identifies the master's certified figure, not a judicial opinion. Researchers tracing historical fee disputes or damage calculations should look for the allocatur notation as the authoritative settled amount.
Second, criminal pleading contexts. Rapalje & Lawrence flags allocatur in connection with writs of certiorari in New Jersey criminal practice, citing early New Jersey reporters. This usage — where allocatur authorized removal of an indictment or stayed execution of sentence — appears in early American state court records and is distinct from both the English cost-taxation sense and the modern Pennsylvania appellate sense.
Third, the Latin-proceedings caveat. Burrill notes explicitly that the term was used "when the proceedings were in Latin." Researchers working in pre-1730 English records (before English replaced Latin in court proceedings) or in pre-revolutionary colonial records will encounter the term in its most archaic form. After Latin was displaced, the underlying concept continued but the terminology shifted in most jurisdictions.
Fourth, corpus connections. Law Mind materials touching Pennsylvania Supreme Court practice, English Chancery procedure, early American criminal pleading, and writ practice across jurisdictions will all surface this term in different functional contexts. A search across the corpus without this disambiguation will conflate three distinct procedural mechanisms.
Historical Dictionary Support
The five source dictionaries converge on the core Latin meaning and the writ-allowance function, with useful divergences on scope and modern application.
Black's (both editions) and Burrill agree that the term was formerly used to denote judicial allowance of a writ or order, and both identify the cost-taxation certificate function in English practice. Burrill is the most historically careful, anchoring the cost-certificate usage to Tidd's Practice and noting the Latin-proceedings context explicitly.
Rapalje & Lawrence adds the most jurisdictional texture, distinguishing the English High Court master's certificate usage from American criminal pleading applications, and specifically citing New Jersey practice on certiorari. This is the only source among the five that gestures toward American jurisdictional variation in any detail.
Anderson's is the most comprehensive in cataloging specific applications — listing removal of indictments, stay of execution, special bail, quo warranto, and cost-auditing as distinct allocatur contexts. This entry is useful as a checklist of procedural situations where the term might appear, though it does not resolve the question of which jurisdictions used it in which sense.
None of the historical dictionaries captures the modern Pennsylvania appellate usage, which post-dates these sources and represents an independent development within Pennsylvania procedural law.
Jurisdictional Note
Outside Pennsylvania, allocatur is effectively a historical term in American practice — found in older court records and treatises but not in current procedure. Within Pennsylvania, it is the operative term for discretionary Supreme Court review and carries a developed body of procedural rules distinct from the historical English usages. Researchers should not assume that historical statements about allocatur in general legal dictionaries describe Pennsylvania's current practice, or vice versa.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Writ Practice in English and Early American Courts; Pennsylvania Appellate Procedure; Taxation of Costs.