CONTINUANCE

6 definitions found across Law Mind sources

CONTINUANCEAuthored
The Law Mind • 1158 words
Definition
A continuance is the postponement or adjournment of a court proceeding — a trial, hearing, or other scheduled matter — to a later date. It suspends the proceedings without terminating them, preserving the action on the court's docket for resumption at the appointed time. The term carries two related but distinct meanings in practice: 1. The act of postponement itself: the granting of a delay in proceedings upon motion of a party or by the court's own initiative (sua sponte). A continuance may be granted for reasons including the unavailability of a witness or counsel, the need for additional discovery, newly discovered evidence, or the illness of a party. 2. The record entry: the formal notation entered on the court record evidencing the postponement, specifying the ground for delay and the date to which proceedings are continued. In historical common law practice, this entry served the additional function of connecting the successive stages of the record into one continuous whole, preventing a gap that might otherwise break the chain of proceedings. In a narrower constitutional dimension, criminal defendants possess a right to seek a continuance when preparation demands it, though courts retain broad discretion to grant or deny, and denial of a continuance in circumstances where it prejudices the accused's right to counsel or a fair trial can constitute reversible error.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The action of continuing; the period during which something continues; duration. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A holding on or remaining in a particular state; permanence of condition, habits, or abode; perseverance; constancy; uninterrupted succession. The common meaning emphasizes persistence or ongoing duration — something continuing forward without interruption. The legal meaning is nearly the opposite in effect: a continuance is a deliberate interruption and pause in proceedings. A researcher encountering "continuance" in non-legal historical text should not assume any connection to postponement; the legal term is a specialized appropriation of the ordinary word.
Common Confusion
CONTINUANCE vs. ADJOURNMENT: These terms overlap substantially and are sometimes used interchangeably, but they carry distinct procedural overtones in many jurisdictions. Adjournment typically refers to the suspension of a legislative session or a court's daily session until a fixed or indefinite later time. Continuance is more specifically associated with the postponement of a particular case or proceeding within a court's docket. In some courts, adjournment refers to the end of a court's sitting for the day while continuance refers to the rescheduling of a specific matter. CONTINUANCE vs. CONTINUANCE OF APPOINTMENT: Anderson's Dictionary of Law identifies a narrower administrative meaning — "continuance under one appointment" — used in statutes governing public officer compensation during an extended term. This usage has no procedural content and should not be confused with the procedural postponement meaning dominant in civil and criminal practice.
Why It Matters in Research
The most significant research trap is the historical record-entry function of continuances. In pre-modern common law pleading, continuances were not mere scheduling notations — they were substantive record-keeping devices. Burrill's description of the entry "appointing the parties to re-appear at the given day" reflects a system in which failure to make the proper continuance entry could legally sever the continuity of the record, with consequences for the validity of subsequent proceedings. Researchers working with early American or English court records must understand this technical function to read those records accurately. Corpus researchers should also note that the grounds for granting continuances shifted significantly across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Early sources focus on formal procedural grounds rooted in pleading structure. Modern doctrine centers on due process, Sixth Amendment right to counsel concerns (in criminal matters), and case management standards. A source from 1850 discussing "sufficient cause" for a continuance is operating in a different doctrinal universe than a twentieth-century case discussing prejudice and constitutional entitlement. Discretion is the operative concept in modern practice: the decision to grant or deny a continuance lies almost entirely within the trial court's discretion, and appellate review is deferential. This means the legal content of the term has migrated from formal procedural rules toward a standard-based analysis. Researchers mining case law should expect substantial variation in outcomes based on jurisdiction and the specific grounds asserted. The term also appears in non-procedural statutory contexts — particularly in administrative law, where "continuance in office" or "continuance of a license" carries entirely different meaning. Flagging this usage early in a research project prevents misclassification of sources.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the most structurally complete treatment, distinguishing ancient practice (where the continuance entry was a formal pleading record device governed by Stephens on Pleading) from modern practice (where it is essentially a scheduling postponement). This distinction is genuine and important — Burrill is reliable on the shift. Black's Law Dictionary (2nd ed.) aligns closely with Burrill on the dual nature of the term (act of postponement plus record entry) and adds case citations confirming the definition was stable across jurisdictions by the late nineteenth century. The first edition entry in the provided source material is truncated, but the second edition supplies the gap. Anderson's Dictionary of Law captures the administrative/compensation meaning — "continuance under one appointment" — that the other dictionaries pass over entirely. This is a genuine lacuna in Black's and Burrill's treatments. Rapalje & Lawrence, while generally strong on procedural terms, does not appear to address continuance directly in the provided extracts, offering instead entries on contingent matters and pleading. Researchers should not rely on Rapalje for continuance doctrine. None of the historical sources engage with the constitutional dimensions of continuance denial in criminal cases — the due process and right-to-counsel framework that dominates modern doctrine. This is expected given the era of composition but means historical dictionaries are materially incomplete as research tools for contemporary criminal procedure questions.
Jurisdictional Note
Most American jurisdictions treat the grant or denial of a continuance as lying within the trial court's sound discretion, reviewable only for abuse. Federal courts and state courts frequently differ on the procedural mechanics of how continuances are requested, noticed, and documented. In criminal matters, some states have codified specific grounds for continuances by statute, while federal practice relies heavily on case law standards under the Sixth Amendment and the Speedy Trial Act.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
No Law Mind Encyclopedia entry addresses procedural continuances directly. For adjacent doctrinal areas touched by continuance practice, see: Continuing Criminal Enterprise (21 USC 848) in The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia (criminal_22), and Continuing Guaranty and Revocation in The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia (contracts_166) — both involve the substantive concept of continuation, though neither addresses the procedural postponement doctrine.
Related Terms
Adjournment | Postponement | Motion Practice | Trial Management | Speedy Trial | Right to Counsel | Abuse of Discretion | Default | Demurrer | Record Entry | Continuance in Office | Continuance of Appointment
CONTINUANCEmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
The adjournment or
CONTINUANCEmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
(278) CONTINGENT, (defined). 5 Barb. 686, 692; 10 Id. 296, 388. CONTINGENT CLAIMS, (against an estate). 32 Me. 460; 7 Allen (Mass.) 430. (in statute concerning bankruptcy). 24 Me. 358. CONTINGENT DAMAGES, (defined). 1 Str. 431. CONTINGENT DEBTS, (of a bankrupt). 115 Mass. 52. CONTINGENT DEMAND, (defined). 5 Barb. (Ν. Υ.) 686. 111. (in bankrupt law). 2 Gray (Mass.) CONTINGENT ESTATE.-See CONTINGENCY, 21. these contingent or springing uses (for they have been called by both epithets, and without any great inconsistency, although it creates difficulty in regard to their distinctive classification,) differ from executory devises, which latter do not require any particular estate to support them; that by them a fee-simple or other less estate may be limited after a fee-simple, and that a remainder may be limited of a chattel interest after a particular estate for life created in the same. The following is an example of a contingent CONTINGENT ESTATE, (defined). 4 Abb. use: A use to the first unborn son of A., (N. Y.) App. Dec. 218. after a previous limitation to A. for life or for years, determinable on his life; for this does not answer to the notion of either a Cui jurisdictio data est, ea quoque concessa esse videntur, sine quibus jurisdictio explicari non potest (Dig. 2,1,2): To whomsoever a jurisdiction is given, those things also are supposed to be granted, without which the jurisdiction cannot be exercised. Cui jus est donandi, eidem et vendendi et concedendi jus est (Dig. 50, 17, 163): He who has the right of giving has also the right of selling and granting. Cui licet quod majus (or magnus) non debet quod minus est non licere (4 Co. 23): He who has authority to do the more important act shall not be debarted from doing that of less importance. Cuicunque aliquis quid concedit concedere videtur et id, sine quo res ipsa esse non potuit (11 Co. 52): Whoever grants anything to another is supposed to grant that also without which the thing itself would be of no effect. Cuilibet in sua arte perito est credendum: Each one skilled in his own art is to be believed. Thus, medical men and other skilled witnesses may give their opinion in evidence as to the state or condition of a patient, or thing at any particular time. Cuilibet licet juri pro se introducto renunciare: Any one may waive or renounce the benefit of a principle or rule of law that exists only for his protection; e. g. an ambassador may waive his extra-territoriality or exemption from the jurisdiction of the local courts, a wit ness may waive his privilege, and generally a party may waive any relief to which he is entiiled when successful in an action, e. g. his right to costs out of the other or defeated party. to dispose; or, as Broom says, "The bestower of a gift has a right to regulate its disposal." This rule is a general one, and is considerably curtailed and qualified at the present time, especially so by the acts which restrict and regulate the tying up of real estate, and accumulation of personal property beyond specified periods. Cujus est divisio alterius est electio (Co. Litt. 166): When one has the division, the other has the choice. Cujus est instituere ejus est abrogare (Broom Max. (5 edit.) 878, n.): He that institutes may also abrogate. Cujus est solum ejus est usque ad cœlum et ad inferos (Co. Litt. 4): Whose is the soil, his it is even to heaven and to the middle of the earth. Thus, upon a conveyance of land, simpliciter, buildings and timber being thereon will also pass, as also the mines thereunder, "donec probeter in contrarium" (i. e. until the contrary is proved). Property, however, must be so used and enjoyed as not to injure or prejudice the rights of adjoining owners, as by overhanging buildings. Cujus juris (i. e. jurisdictionis) est principale, ejusdem juris erit accessorium (2 Inst. 493): An accessory matter is subject to the same jurisdiction as its principal. Cujus per errorem dati repetitio est, ejus consulto dati donatio est (Dig. 50, 17, 53): He who gives a thing by mistake, has a right to recover it back; but if he gives designedly, it is a gift. Cujusque rei potissima pars est principium (Dig. 1, 2, 1; 10 Co. 49a): The chiefest part of everything is the beginning. See, also, DAYS OF GRACE; WITHOUT DAY.) In the definition of burglary, however, night generally means the time between 9 P. M. and 6 A. M. of the day are set down. Being usually a book of original entries, it is admissible in evidence in proof of the transactions entered in it..
CONTINUANCEmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883
prisoner pleads "guilty" or "not guilty," &c.; and under the common law practice, a defendant is said to "plead to the jurisdiction," to "plead in bar," &c., according to the nature of his plea. To "plead issuably," is to demur or plead some substantial defense to the action, so that it may be determined on its merits. 11 Sm. Ac. 101; Chit. Gen. Pr. 247. 9. Chancery practice. In equity, pleas are somewhat rare in practice, and are generally only used in cases where the defendant is in a position to state one or more facts, which if inserted in the bill would make it demurrable; in such a case the defendant, by filing a plea, (which generally has to be sworn to by him,) may avoid putting in an answer, and bring the 23. Pleading over.-In criminal pracsuit to an end at once. Pleas are of tice, a prisoner charged with treason or
CONTINUANCEn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A holding on, or remaining in a particular state; permanence, as of condition, habits, abode, etc.; perseverance; constancy; duration; stay. Great plagues, and of long continuence. Deut. xxviii. 59. Patient continuance i well-doing. Rom. ii. 7. Uninterrupted succession; continuation; constant renewell; perpetuation; propagation. The brute immedistely regards his own preservation or the continuance of his species. Addison. A holding together; continuity. [Obs.] Bacon. The adjournment of the proceedings in a cause from one day, or from one stated term of a court, to another. The entry of such adjuornment and the grounds thereof on the record.
continuancenoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
The action of continuing. | The period during which something continues or goes on; duration. | An order issued by a court granting a postponement of a legal proceeding for a set period.

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

SubscribeEncyclopediaSign In