FOREMAN - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

FOREMANAuthored

The Law Mind • 918 words

Definition

The presiding member of a grand or petit jury, selected from among the jurors to lead deliberations and speak on the jury's behalf. The foreman announces the jury's verdict, communicates with the court on procedural matters, and in some jurisdictions signs the verdict form or indictment. The role carries no greater vote than any other juror; the foreman's authority is administrative and representational, not substantive.

In non-legal usage, the term also designates a supervisor or crew leader in a workplace setting, a meaning entirely distinct from its legal function.

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Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The leader of a work crew; the member of a jury who presides over it and speaks on its behalf.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The chief or first man of a group — the chief of a jury who acts as speaker, or the chief of a set of hands employed in a shop or on works of any kind who superintends the rest.

The workplace meaning — a labor supervisor — is the dominant sense in everyday speech and has been since at least the industrial era. In legal sources, foreman refers exclusively to the jury role. Researchers encountering the word in historical legal texts should not import the supervisory connotations; the foreman of a jury holds no hierarchical authority over fellow jurors, only a representative function.

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Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Foreman of the Grand Jury: Presides over grand jury proceedings; announces whether the grand jury has found a true bill (indictment) or a no bill. In federal practice and most states, the foreman signs the indictment to authenticate it as the grand jury's act.

Foreman of the Petit Jury: Presides over trial jury deliberations; delivers the verdict aloud in open court when the jury is polled or the verdict is returned. The role is largely ceremonial in deliberations — the foreman's vote counts equally with all others.

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Why It Matters in Research

Selection methods vary and affect historical sources. In early American and English practice, the foreman was often the first juror sworn, making the role a function of empanelment order rather than election by peers. Modern practice typically has jurors elect their own foreman after empanelment. Historical cases and transcripts may reference the foreman's identity in ways that reflect these older selection conventions.

Indictment validity questions sometimes turn on the foreman's signature or endorsement. Researchers examining challenges to indictments — particularly in pre-20th century federal cases — should check whether the foreman's formal role in signing the true bill was contested. Bouvier cross-references GRAND JURY specifically for this reason.

Gender-neutral alternatives have displaced the term in many jurisdictions. "Foreperson" is now standard in federal courts and numerous states. Researchers using the Law Mind corpus across historical periods will encounter both terms; they refer to the same role. Treat foreman and foreperson as synonyms in search strategy.

Anderson's Dictionary of Law entry under "Foreman" in the source material supplied appears to be a misfiled entry for "Force" — a cataloging artifact. Researchers should not rely on that Anderson entry for foreman-specific authority and should treat Black's, Bouvier's, and Burrill's as the controlling historical sources for this term.

The foreman's announcement of the verdict is a procedural formality, but courts have occasionally addressed whether a defect in that announcement — silence, ambiguity, or the wrong juror speaking — affects the verdict's validity. These edge cases appear in appellate records, not in standard dictionary treatment.

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Historical Dictionary Support

The historical sources are unusually uniform. Black's (both editions), Burrill's, Bouvier's, and Rapalje & Lawrence give essentially identical definitions: the presiding member of the grand or petit jury who speaks or answers for the jury. There is no meaningful divergence across these sources, and none attempts to elaborate on the foreman's internal deliberative authority (or lack thereof).

What the historical dictionaries uniformly omit: any discussion of how the foreman is selected, what happens when no foreman is chosen, or the distinction between the foreman's representative voice and equal vote. These practical questions — which matter in modern litigation — were left to treatise writers and procedural rules rather than dictionary compilers.

Bouvier's cross-reference to GRAND JURY suggests awareness that the foreman's significance is greater in grand jury practice (where indictment authentication is at stake) than in petit jury practice, though Bouvier does not develop this distinction explicitly.

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Jurisdictional Note

Federal courts and a significant number of states now use "foreperson" as the official term, rendering "foreman" a historical designation in those jurisdictions. Substantive law governing the role — selection, duties, indictment signing — is controlled by individual jurisdiction's rules of criminal and civil procedure, which vary on details such as whether the foreperson's signature is required for a valid indictment.

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FOREMANmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

The presiding member of a grand or petit jury, who speaks or answers for the jury.

FOREMANmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

-The presiding member of a grand or petit jury.

FOREMANmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

Force to force. Resistance to unlawful violence, - allowed to the extent of the violence. See ASSAULT; BATTERY; DEFENSE, 1. Irresistible force. Human agency in its nature and power absolutely uncontrollable.1 See ACCIDENT; ACT, 1, Of God; CARRIER, Common; ENEMY, Public. Forced; forcible; forcibly. (1) Against the will or consent: as, a forcible abduction, dispossession, entry and detainer, sale, qq. v. (2) Against the will and under express protest: as, a forced payment, q. v. "Forcibly" doing an act is merely doing the act with force.2 "Violently" may not be equivalent to "by force," in an indictment for rape. All civil injuries are either without force or violence, as in cases of slander and breach of contract; or else are coupled with force and violence, as in cases of battery and false imprisonment. The government of the United States may, by means of physical force, exerted through its official agents, execute on every foot of American soil the powers and functions that belong to it. This power does not derogate from a State the right to execute its laws at the same time and place. The one does not exclude the other, except where both cannot be exercised at the same time; then the Federal authority prevails. See WAR. (3) Arrived at by violence done to language; strained; unnatural: as, a forced construction, q. v. 2. Power to persuade or convince, or impose an obligation; legal effect or operation; binding effect; validity; efficacy. See VOID. By force of. By virtue of; by reason of; in consequence of.6 Foreclosure takes place where a mortgagor has forfeited his estate by non-payment of money due upon the mortgage, but still retains his equity of redemption. In that case, the mortgagee may file a bill of foreclosure to compel the debtor to redeem his estate presently (as, within six months), or, in default, to be forever closed or barred from the right. This is known as strict foreclosure. In Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and other States, the mortgagee obtains a decree for a sale of the land, the proceeds to be applied to satisfying incumbrances in the order of their priority.¹ A suit to foreclose a mortgage, not seeking a personal judgment, is essentially a proceeding in rem. See MORTGAGE; REDEMPTION. 2. Also applied to the suit by a pledgee to extinguish the pledgor's right to redeem the personalty, after default made; and to proceedings to collect charges or liens upon other specific property, as, a foreclosure of a mechanic's lien. FOREIGN.3 1. That which belongs or pertains to another country, nation, or sovereignty; or to another State, or division of a State.4 As, foreign or a foreign - administrator, allegiance, assignment, attachment, charity, coin, commerce or trade, corporation, county, court, creditor, decree, divorce, document, domicil, exchange or bill of exchange, factor, guardian, judgment or sentence, law, minister, patent, port, vessel, voyage, qq. v. Foreigner. A citizen or subject of another country or nation; an alien, q. v. A naturalized citizen is no longer a foreigner. See BANKRUPTCY; CITIZENSHIP; COPYRIGHT; PAT- The presiding member of a jury, grand or petit. From the persons summoned and accepted as grand jurors, the court appoints the foreman, who has power to administer oaths to witnesses. The first 1 See Hatch v. White, 2 Gall. 154 (1814), Story, J.; Sprague v. Martin, 29 Minn. 229 (1882); Du Val v. Johnson, 39 Ark. 188 (1882); 44 Ohio St. 275; 4 Kent, 180; 2 Washburn, R. P. 261, note; Williams, R. P. 409; Daniel, Ch. Pr. 1204. 2 Martin v. Pond, 30 F. R. 18 (1887), cases. $ F. forain, alien, strange: L. foras, out of doors, abroad. See Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 5 Pet. *56 (1831). Spratt v. Spratt, 1 Pet. *340 (1828). [R. S. $ 809; United States v. Plumer, 3 Cliff, 71 (1867).

FOREMANn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The first or chief man; as: The chief man of a jury, who acts as their speaker. The chief of a set of hands employed in a shop, or on works of any kind, who superintends the rest; an overseer.

foremannoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC 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 leader of a work crew. | The member of a jury who presides over it and speaks on its behalf. | A slave assistant to the white overseer who managed field hands.

Foremanname

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

A surname originating as an occupation for someone who was the manager of a farm. | A community near Prince George, Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, British Columbia, Canada. | A small city in Little River County, Arkansas, United States. | An unincorporated community in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, United States.

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