Definition
A procedural mechanism in English court practice by which a court, upon motion for judgment or application for a new trial, reserves final determination of a matter because it lacks sufficient materials to resolve all questions in dispute. Rather than issuing a final order or dismissing the motion, the court directs the matter to stand over — suspending proceedings — while ordering that specific issues be tried, accounts taken, inquiries made, or other preparatory steps completed. Once those steps are done, the matter returns to court for a "hearing on further consideration," at which point the court disposes of the outstanding questions on the basis of the newly obtained materials.
In Chancery practice specifically, the term describes the stage of proceedings that follows a preliminary or interlocutory decree directing accounts and inquiries to be conducted before a chief clerk (or master). Any question arising out of those accounts and inquiries, when it returns before the court, is heard and resolved at what is formally called a hearing on further consideration.
The term thus describes both the procedural posture (the matter is reserved, pending additional fact-gathering) and the eventual hearing at which that reserved matter is finally resolved.
Common Confusion
"Further consideration" in procedural law has no meaningful overlap with "consideration" as a substantive contract law term. A researcher encountering "further consideration" in Chancery records, court rules, or English procedural materials should not treat the word "consideration" as importing any contractual meaning. The phrase is a term of art describing a stage in litigation procedure, not a reference to the exchange of value forming the basis of a contract. The two uses of "consideration" share only a root word, not legal content.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is primarily a creature of English equity and common law practice and appears most frequently in 19th-century English procedural sources, Chancery materials, and colonial or early American materials that followed English procedural models. Researchers working in equity records — particularly Chancery decrees, masters' reports, and equity rule books — will encounter this phrase as a stage marker indicating that a case was not finally disposed of at first hearing.
The critical trap for modern researchers is reading "further consideration" as a casual or descriptive phrase ("the court will think about it more") rather than recognizing it as a defined procedural status with specific rule-based consequences. Under the Rules of Court governing English practice (Rule xl. 10 is cited in multiple historical sources), a direction to stand over for further consideration triggered formal procedural steps, not mere judicial deliberation.
Researchers should also note that the phrase can appear in two distinct but related contexts: (1) in common law courts, on motions for judgment or new trial, where the court lacks sufficient materials for a ruling; and (2) in equity/Chancery, where it marks the return hearing after accounts and inquiries ordered by a preliminary decree have been completed. These two uses share a structural logic but arise from different procedural tracks. Misidentifying which context applies can distort analysis of a case's procedural history.
American researchers will rarely encounter this term as an active procedural category. Modern American federal and state procedure has no direct equivalent stage labeled "further consideration," though analogous mechanisms exist (referral to a magistrate or special master, reservation of ruling pending supplemental briefing). When the term appears in American sources, it is typically in materials borrowing from or describing English practice, or in early state equity proceedings that tracked English Chancery procedure closely.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three historical sources align closely on the core meaning and point to the same procedural authority: Rule xl. 10 of the Rules of Court governing English practice. Black's and Rapalje & Lawrence both describe the common law posture — court lacking materials to give judgment on a motion, directing the matter to stand over while ordering additional steps. Bouvier's focuses specifically on the Chancery dimension, identifying the "hearing on further consideration" as the procedural stage at which questions arising from accounts and inquiries ordered by a preliminary Chancery decree are resolved.
All three sources treat the term as English practice vocabulary. None of the historical dictionaries connect it to American practice as an independent procedural category, suggesting it entered American legal literature largely through transplanted English forms rather than through independent American procedural development. Bouvier's citation to Hunt's Equity Rules provides a treatise anchor that researchers tracking Chancery procedure may find useful as a period source.
None of the historical sources address what happens procedurally if the further consideration hearing itself is inconclusive — a gap that may matter in reconstructing complex multi-stage equity proceedings from archival records.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is substantially confined to English practice and jurisdictions that followed English Chancery procedure closely. American equity practice absorbed related concepts but did not uniformly adopt the terminology. Researchers working in Louisiana, which maintained a distinct civil law procedural tradition, or in states that early unified law and equity, are unlikely to encounter this term as an operative procedural category in local sources.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The procedural sense of "further consideration" does not map to the contract law encyclopedia entries on consideration. Those entries address substantive contract formation doctrine and are not relevant to this term. No Law Mind Encyclopedia entry directly addresses English Chancery procedural stages. Researchers needing context on consideration as a contractual concept should consult:
Contracts — Adequacy of Consideration and Nominal Consideration (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia) — for the distinct contract law meaning of "consideration."