COU

2 definitions found across Law Mind sources

COUAuthored
The Law Mind • 655 words
Definition
"Cou" is an abbreviated or truncated form appearing in historical legal texts, most commonly as a shorthand for "count" (Latin: *computus* or *comes*) in the context of pleading at common law. In this usage, a count was the formal declaration or statement of a plaintiff's cause of action as recited aloud before the court — the oral or written pleading by which a party set out the grounds upon which relief was sought. The act of reciting such a count was called "counting," and serjeants at law were required to "count" at the Court of Common Pleas as part of their formal admission to that degree of the profession. The fragment preserved in Burrill's source material describes serjeants at law who, after being sworn and coifed, proceeded to Westminster to "count at the Common Pleas" — meaning they formally recited their declarations or pleadings before that court as a ceremonial and professional obligation tied to the call to the degree of serjeant.
Common Confusion
Researchers should not conflate the following: - COUNT (pleading): The formal cause of action stated in a declaration. A declaration could contain multiple counts. - COUNT (title): The continental noble title, cognate to "earl" in English usage. Entirely unrelated to pleading. - COUNTING: The act of orally reciting a count before the court, a practice associated specifically with serjeants at law and the Court of Common Pleas. - COUNSEL: Abbreviated "coun." or "cous." in some older texts — not the same abbreviation as "cou."
Why It Matters in Research
This entry is a caution against abbreviation confusion in historical sources. "Cou" as it appears in Burrill is not a standalone legal term but a broken citation artifact — the tail end of one entry running into the beginning of another, or an abbreviation for "count" in the pleading sense. Researchers working in historical common law materials, particularly those dealing with serjeants at law, the Inns of Court, or common law pleading procedure, should be alert to: 1. Contextual truncation: Burrill's dictionary, like many 19th-century legal reference works, was printed in dense columns with irregular spacing. Terms and citations sometimes bleed across entries. "Cou" in isolation is almost certainly a fragment of "count," "counsel," or "court" depending on the surrounding text. 2. Pleading terminology: If the research context involves common law declaration practice, "counting" at the bar is a technical act. A serjeant at law was obligated to count — to recite a formal pleading — upon receiving the coif, distinguishing the degree of serjeant from ordinary barristers. This ceremony was specific to the Court of Common Pleas. 3. Citation integrity: The surrounding Burrill passage cites Sheppard's Touchstone (Shep. Touch. 10), Coke on Littleton (Co. Litt. 56b), and 2 Show. 279 (Shower's Reports). Any researcher following this thread should consult those primary sources directly rather than relying on the fragment as preserved.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary preserves this fragment in the context of a longer passage about the ceremonial calling of serjeants at law, quoting Lord Raymond's description of the Gray's Inn Hall gathering where new serjeants "rehearsed their counts, and were coifed, and then walked to Westminster, and counted at the Common Pleas." This is among the more vivid historical records of what counting at bar meant in practice — not merely a metaphor for arguing, but a formal recitation ceremony with institutional weight. Burrill does not define "cou" as a discrete term, and no other major historical legal dictionary (Bouvier, Black's, Jacob's, Tomlin's) treats it as a standalone entry. Its appearance here is best understood as a printing or transcription artifact of a 19th-century dictionary compiled from manuscript and print sources of varying legibility and completeness.
Related Terms
Count (pleading) — Declaration — Serjeant at Law — Coif — Court of Common Pleas — Common Law Pleading — Bar (admission to) — Inns of Court — Declaration (pleading) — Cause of Action
COUmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867
(387) Shep. Touch. 10. Co. Litt. 56 b. Cottage. See acres of land laid to it. See 2 Show. 279. (388) (389) taking the degree of serjeant at law. Lord Raymond, describing a call of serjeants to the bar, observes that after being sworn, "they came to Gray's Inn Hall, where they rehearsed their counts, and were coifed, and then they walked to Westminster, and counted at the Common Pleas, according to custom," &c. 1 Ld. Raym. 604. So, on another occasion, he says of the serjeants, that being robed, "they were brought to the bar and counted," &c. 2 Id. 769. See T. Raym. 430, 478. Sir George Croke, describing the same ceremony, observes of the serjeants, that "every of them, after they came to the bar, had several writs and counts, which counts they recited, and after their counts recited and writs read by the prothonotary, one of the ancient serjeants imparled thereto," &c. Cro. Jac. 2. The same reporter, describing Sir Edward Coke's creation as a serjeant, on his being made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, has recorded that "he was sworn in chancery as serjeant, and afterwards went presently into the treasury of the Common Pleas, and there, by Popham, Chief Justice, his party robes were put on, and he forthwith, the same day, was brought to the bar as serjeant; and presently after his writ read and count made, he was created Chief Justice," &c. Cro. Jac. 125. But the most minute description of this and other ceremonies attending the creation of serjeants, is given by the same reporter in the introduction to the third volume of his reports. Cro. Car. Introd. See T. Jon. 42. This characteristic ceremony of counting is still retained in the Court of Common Pleas, in cases where serjeants are created by writ issued in term. 18 C. B. (9 J. Scott,) 402. Trin. T. 1856. See Serjeant at law. (390) This term was formerly applied to wills, COUNTIE. L. Fr. leases, &c. in the sense of revocation. 5 Edw. III. 28. Termes de la Ley. 4 Co. 60, 61. Cowell. (391) pais.] In pleading and practice. The inhabitants of a district from which a jury is summoned in a cause.* "To make a certain jury of the country," were words of the old writ of venire facias. A jury, summoned, or to be summoned. In pleading, a defendant "puts himself upon the country," (ponit se super patriam,) i. e. refers the trial of his cause to a jury. A "conclusion to the country" is an offer of trial by jury. 3 Bl. Com. 315. 3 Steph. Com. 589. Steph. Pl. 73, 78, 230, 237. (392) William Blackstone, that in every court there must be at least three constituent parts, the actor, reus, and judex; the actor, or plaintiff, who complains of an injury done; the reus, or defendant, who is called upon to make satisfaction for it; and the judex, or judicial power, which is to examine the truth of the fact, to determine the law arising upon that fact, and if any injury appears to have been done, to ascertain and by its officers to apply the remedy. 3 Bl. Com. 25. A court may be more particularly described as an organized body with defined powers, meeting at certain times and places for the hearing and decision of causes and other matters brought before it, and aided in this its proper business, by its proper officers, viz. attorneys and counsel, to present and manage the business, clerks to record and attest its acts and decisions, and ministerial officers to execute its commands, and secure due order in its proceedings.* See Skene de Verb. Signif. voc. Curia. Com. 421, 422. 3 Bl. Com. 57. See Assize, Nisi Prius, Justices of assize. (393) York had their courts baron and courts leet. See Charters in Bolton's Hist. of Westchester. (394) . (395)

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