Definition
In legal usage, "considered" functions as a term of judicial or quasi-judicial evaluation, carrying the sense of "reasonably regarded" or "deliberately weighed." When a court, tribunal, or decision-maker is said to have "considered" a matter, the word signals that the matter received genuine attention and rational assessment — not merely that it passed before the decision-maker's eyes. In formal legal instruments, opinions, and orders, phrases such as "it is considered," "having considered the evidence," or "duly considered" mark that a deliberate evaluative act has occurred. The word also appears in the recital clauses of judgments and decrees, where it serves as the operative word introducing the court's formal conclusion.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Having been carefully thought out; maturely reflected upon.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 defines "considered" as "maturely thought out; deliberately formed or adopted."
The common and legal meanings are close but not identical. In ordinary English, "considered" suggests subjective, careful personal reflection — it describes a quality of thought. In legal usage, the word operates closer to an objective standard: Bouvier's equates it with "reasonably regarded," importing the external, reasonable-person measure rather than a purely subjective one. A decision-maker who personally agonized over a question has not necessarily "considered" it in the legal sense if the resulting evaluation was unreasonable. This gap matters most in administrative law and appellate review, where "considered" becomes a threshold inquiry into whether a tribunal's action was substantively rational.
Why It Matters in Research
The term appears in two distinct functional contexts that researchers must not conflate.
First, as a recital word in judgments and decrees: historical American and English courts routinely opened the operative portion of a judgment with "It is considered by the court that..." or simply "Considered, that..." This was a technical term of art in formal court records, equivalent to "adjudged" or "ordered," and researchers reading colonial, antebellum, or nineteenth-century docket entries and minute books will encounter it in this role. In this context, "considered" is not describing deliberation — it is the operative word of the court's command, analogous to the modern "it is hereby ordered."
Second, as a standard of review marker: in appellate and administrative law, whether a lower tribunal "considered" relevant evidence or argument is a live legal question. Courts distinguish between a tribunal that was exposed to a piece of evidence and one that genuinely considered it in the Bouvier sense — reasonably regarded it in the analytical process. This distinction drives many remand orders. Researchers tracing administrative or appellate doctrine should watch for "considered" in this evaluative sense across judicial opinions from the late nineteenth century forward.
The shift between these two functions — from operative word of judgment to standard-of-review term — is easy to miss when moving between periods. Read the surrounding procedural context carefully before attributing meaning.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's is terse but precise: "The word 'considered' is equivalent to 'reasonably regarded.'" The sole supporting citation is a Kentucky appellate decision. This gloss is notable because it does real analytic work: it anchors "considered" not in subjective deliberation but in objective reasonableness. No other standard historical legal dictionary (Black's early editions, Wharton, Burrill) devotes a dedicated entry to the term, reflecting its dual status as both an ordinary English word and a legal term of art — a category that older dictionaries often underserved.
What the historical sources miss is the procedural function of "considered" as a judgment word in formal court records. That usage was so embedded in practice that lexicographers apparently treated it as self-evident. Researchers working in manuscript court records or early printed reporters should consult legal formbooks and treatises on common-law pleading and practice for that context, not the dictionaries.