HEARING - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

HEARINGAuthored

The Law Mind • 1600 words

Definition

A proceeding in which a tribunal, court, agency, or other decision-making body receives arguments, evidence, or testimony in order to resolve a question of law or fact. The term is broad and applies across contexts: courts, administrative agencies, legislatures, and quasi-judicial bodies all conduct hearings of varying formality.

1. In courts of law: Any formal proceeding before a judge or magistrate, typically without a jury, at which one or both parties present arguments or evidence. This includes pretrial motions, bail hearings, evidentiary hearings, sentencing hearings, and contempt proceedings. Distinguished from a trial by the absence of a jury and often by a narrower scope — a hearing typically addresses a discrete issue rather than the full merits of a case.

2. In equity practice (historical): The primary trial stage of a chancery suit. Because equity courts had no jury, the "hearing" was the proceeding at which counsel argued the case on the pleadings and proofs before the chancellor or equity judge. The equity hearing was the functional equivalent of a trial at law. A "final hearing" designated the proceeding at which the court resolved the merits and issued its decree.

3. In administrative law: A formal or informal proceeding before a government agency at which affected parties may present evidence and arguments before the agency makes a decision. Administrative hearings range from highly formalized adjudications (governed by the Administrative Procedure Act or state equivalents) to informal review processes. Due process requirements attach to administrative hearings when the government action threatens a protected liberty or property interest.

4. In legislative practice: A session of a legislative committee at which witnesses testify and members receive information bearing on proposed legislation or oversight matters. These are not adjudicative and carry no legal consequences for participants beyond subpoena obligations.

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Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The sense used to perceive sound; also, a proceeding at which discussions are heard; a legal procedure done before a judge without a jury.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act or power of perceiving sound; also, opportunity to be heard; audience; and, a listening to facts and evidence for the sake of adjudication; a session of a court for considering proofs.

The common meaning of "hearing" — the sensory faculty — is entirely distinct from the legal meaning, but most ordinary speakers understand at least roughly what a legal hearing is. The critical gap is precision: common usage treats any formal proceeding as a "hearing," while legal usage distinguishes hearings from trials, from depositions, from conferences, and from informal agency proceedings. Researchers should not assume that historical sources use "hearing" with modern procedural specificity.

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Common Confusion

HEARING vs. TRIAL: In modern practice, a hearing and a trial are distinct. A trial is the full adjudication of contested facts before a factfinder (judge or jury); a hearing addresses a specific procedural or preliminary question. In equity practice, however, the hearing was the trial — there was no separate trial stage. Historical sources using "hearing" in equity context mean what modern sources mean by "bench trial."

HEARING vs. PRELIMINARY HEARING: "Hearing" is a genus; "preliminary hearing" is a species. A preliminary hearing is a specific pretrial proceeding in criminal cases to determine whether probable cause supports binding a defendant over for trial. See the RECOGNIZED FORMS section below and the Encyclopedia cross-references above.

HEARING vs. CONFERENCE: A scheduling conference, pretrial conference, or status conference is generally not a "hearing" — no evidence or substantive argument on the merits is received. The line blurs in practice, and courts sometimes use the terms interchangeably for informal proceedings.

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Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Preliminary hearing: In criminal procedure, a pretrial proceeding before a magistrate or judge to determine whether probable cause exists to bind a defendant over for trial. A constitutional and statutory safeguard distinct from a grand jury proceeding.

Evidentiary hearing: A hearing at which witnesses testify and documentary evidence is received, typically to resolve a disputed factual issue within a larger case (e.g., suppression motions, habeas corpus proceedings).

Bail/bond hearing: A proceeding to determine conditions of pretrial release. May be standalone or combined with arraignment.

Administrative hearing: Adjudicative proceeding before a government agency, often presided over by an administrative law judge (ALJ). Due process requirements vary with the stakes involved.

Parole hearing: A proceeding before a parole board to determine eligibility for early release or to address revocation of parole.

Removal/immigration hearing: A proceeding before an immigration judge to determine whether a noncitizen is subject to removal and what relief, if any, is available.

Legislative hearing: A committee session at which witnesses present testimony on proposed legislation or matters under investigation. Not adjudicative.

Final hearing (historical equity): The dispositive hearing in a chancery suit at which the merits were argued and the court entered its decree.

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Why It Matters in Research

The word "hearing" in historical sources — particularly pre-merger sources predating the 1938 unification of law and equity under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure — almost always refers to chancery practice. When Burrill, Bouvier, and the first and second editions of Black's define "hearing," they are defining a discrete equity procedure, not the general modern concept. Researchers using these sources to understand "hearings" in a modern administrative or criminal context will be reading the wrong definition entirely.

The merger of law and equity collapsed the distinction between "trial" (law) and "hearing" (equity). After 1938, federal courts use "hearing" for the broader modern set of proceedings described above. State courts adopted similar rules at varying times. Any source from before the relevant merger date in your jurisdiction should be read with this shift in mind.

In administrative law, the word "hearing" carries constitutional weight. Due process doctrine — particularly the line of cases flowing from the mid-twentieth century onward — ties procedural protections to whether a proceeding qualifies as a hearing implicating liberty or property. Researchers tracing administrative hearing rights need to move carefully across the pre- and post-APA periods; the 1946 Administrative Procedure Act dramatically formalized what had been a loose and variable practice.

Immigration research presents a parallel trap: "hearing" in immigration sources may refer to proceedings before immigration judges under the Executive Office for Immigration Review, proceedings before asylum officers, or older deportation proceedings conducted under entirely different statutory frameworks. The nomenclature has shifted repeatedly with statutory changes. Pre-1996 sources (before IIRIRA) use "deportation hearing" for what is now a "removal hearing"; these are related but not identical procedural creatures.

Legislative hearing research requires awareness that witnesses in congressional or state legislative hearings enjoy limited but real legal protections (privilege against self-incrimination, contempt of Congress exposure), and that the record created has evidentiary and interpretive uses in statutory construction. The "hearing" record in this context is a primary source for legislative history, not a judicial record.

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Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier, Burrill, and both editions of Black's converge on the equity-practice definition: a hearing is the chancery equivalent of a trial at law, conducted on the pleadings and proofs after evidence is closed. All three sources treat this as the primary meaning. Burrill is the most precise, citing Daniell's Chancery Practice and Barbour's Chancery Practice as authority. Bouvier adds procedural texture, describing the sequence by which counsel opened and argued the case — useful for researchers reconstructing equity procedure in states that retained separate chancery courts into the twentieth century.

Rapalje & Lawrence's entry is unusually spare for a term of this significance, pointing to case citations rather than providing substantive analysis. What the entry does confirm is that the motion-for-decree context was a recognized variant: a suit "heard on motion for decree" had its own procedural character, and the original hearing in that context differed from a fully developed evidentiary hearing.

The Anderson's Dictionary entry pulled under this term actually concerns "bill of health" — a misfiled or mismatched entry in the source data. Researchers should disregard it as irrelevant to the legal meaning of "hearing."

None of the historical sources address administrative hearings, preliminary hearings in criminal practice, or legislative hearings. This is not an omission to fault them for — the modern proliferation of administrative agencies and the constitutionalization of criminal procedure postdate these sources. But the silence means that for any proceeding outside the equity context, historical dictionaries provide essentially no guidance.

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Jurisdictional Note

States that retained separate courts of chancery (Delaware, New Jersey, and parts of the South) may have equity-hearing procedures that diverged from the federal merger. Researchers working in those jurisdictions should consult state-specific chancery practice materials. For administrative hearings, the federal APA and state administrative procedure acts (which vary significantly) govern procedure; not all states have fully parallel APA regimes.

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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: Preliminary Hearing and Bindover
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: Parole — Eligibility, Hearing, and Revocation
The Law Mind Immigration Law Encyclopedia: Voluntary Departure — Pre-Hearing and Post-Hearing, Bond, and Consequences of Failure to Depart

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HEARINGmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In equity practice. The hearing of the arguments of the counsel for the parties upon the pleadings, or pleadings and proofs; corresponding to the trial of an action at law. The word "hearing" has an established meaning as applicable to equity cases. It means the same thing in those cases that the word "trial" does in cases at law. And the words "final hearing " have long been used to designate the trial of an equity case upon the merits, as distinguished from the hearing of any preliminary questions arising in the cause, and which are termed "interlocutory." 24 Wis. 171. In criminal law. The examination of a prisoner charged with a crime or misdemean- or, and of the witnesses for the accused.

HEARINGmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

Under the practice in 13 Ves. 143, 514. (when admissible). 10 Pet. (U. S.) 434; 1 Pet. (U. S.) C. C. 496; 1 Wheat. (U. S.) 6; 1 Coxe (N. J.) 333; 4 Campb. 414; 1 Mau. & Sel. 679, 686. S.) 290; 539. Chancery, the hearing of a cause is the argument of it in court after the conclusion of the pleadings and the close of the evidence. In the case of a suit heard on motion for decree, the original hearing on the motion for decree frequently does not dispose of the suit, but makes it necessary to have a subsequent hearing on further consideration (q. v.) Under the reformed practice, the hearing of an action generally 10. takes the form either of a trial or a motion for judgment (q. v.) HEARING, (as applied to removal of causes, defined). 28 Mich. 527. HEARING, THE, (in a statute). 4 Ch. D. 189, 196.

HEARINGmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

Bill of health. A certificate given by the authorities of the port from which a vessel clears, showing the state of the public health at the port. Clean bill of health. A certificate that no infectious disease exists ; opposed to a touched or suspected bill, or a bill actually foul. Board of health. A board of officials specially charged with the preservation of the general health of the people at large. Their jurisdiction is, ordinarily, a municipality, or a State. National Board of Health. Established by act of Congress of March 3, 1879, ch. 202, § 1 (20 St. L. 484). Consists of seven members appointed by the President, and four members detailed from the departments. Their duties are to obtain information upon all matters affecting the public health, to advise the heads of departments and State executives, to make necessary investigations at any place in the United States, or at foreign to good behavior, or be adjudged guilty of felony. By 26 Geo. II (1753), c. 26, quarantine of ships from infected countries was regulated.1 In England the public health is secured by various statutes, principally by the Public Health Act, 11 and 12 Vict. (1848), c. 63, the Local Government Acts of 1858, and amendments thereto. These statutes give large powers to the local authorities for removing nuisances, regulating burials, checking the sale of injurious food and drink, and otherwise preventing disease. The preservation of health is an absolute right of personal security.2 Injuries to a man's health occur when, by any unwholesome practices of another, a man sustains any apparent damage in his vigor or constitution: as, by the sale of bad provisions, by the exercise of a noisome trade, or by the neglect or unskillful management of his physician, surgeon, or apothecary. For such, a special action of trespass on the case for damages lies. An act (supp.ementary) of New Jersey, approved March 12, 1880, makes animals with contagious diseases common nuisances; another act (also supplementary), approved March 12, 1884, makes horses affected with glanders common nuisances; and both acts authorize destruction of the animals under prescribed conditions. Held, that the acts are within the ports, and to make rules guarding against police powers of the State; that they are not within the introduction of contagious diseases into the country and their spread from State to State.1 The preservation of the public health is one of the chief purposes of local government. Hence, municipal corporations are liberally endowed with power to prevent and avate nuisances. Public policy requires that health-officers be not disturbed in the exercise of their powers, unless clearly transcending their authority.2 All sanitary cordons and preventive regulations come under the right of preventing more serious injuries by stifling the sources of evil. In doing this, health-officers must not interfere with the natural rights of individuals. 3 Power in boards of health to abate nuisances and the causes of them, and to enforce sanitary regulations, are very great. The courts have excused an excessive exercise of power in cases where there was great peril to the public health. But an exercise which is clearly unlawful, and has no great public necessity to excuse it, will be restrained, however praiseworthy the motive. The people" shall be secure in their persons and houses from unreasonable searches and seizures." 4 By statute of 1 James I (1603), c. 31, a person infected with the plague, or dwelling in an infected house, could be compelled to keep his house. If he went into company, he could be punished by whipping, be bound R. S, 1 Sup. p. 480. 2 Hart v. Mayor of Albany, 3 Paige, 218 (1832); 1 Dillon, Munic. Corp. §§ 369, 374. 3 Spalding v. Preston, 21 Vt. 13-14 (1848). Eddy v. Board of Health, 10 Phila. 94 (1873), cases, Peirce, J. See also Butterfoss v. State, 40 N. J. E. 325 (1885). the prohibition of the Fourteenth Amendment, because, although they authorize the abatement of nuisances in advance of a judicial adjudication of the fact of nuisance, yet they do not make the determination as to that fact conclusive, and only permit acts, in abating a particular nuisance, to be justified by proof of its actual existence; thirdly, that the conditions under which the officials may act, by the statute of 1880, are mere limitations upon their power for the benefit of the owners of animals, and their adjudication that such conditions exist will not protect them, unless the existence of the common nuisance is shown. See ADULTERATE; DISEASE; POLICE, 2; QUARANTINE, 2; SOUND, 2 (2). 1. The trial of a suit in equity. 2. The session of any court, or of an adjunct thereof, for considering the proofs in a cause. 3. An examination of the testimony offered against a person charged with crime. As applied to equity cases, "hearing" means the same as "trial" at law. Final hearing. The trial of an equity case upon its merits; as distinguished from 14 Bl. Com. 161; King v. Vantandillo, 4 M. & S. 73 (1815); King v. Burnett, ib. 272 (1815). 21 Bl. Com. 129, 131. 3 Bl. Com. 122. Newark & South Orange Horse Ry. Co. v. Hunt, Sup. Ct. N. J. (Feb. 27, 1888), cases, Magie, J. Same case, 37 Alb. Law J. 356. • Vannevar v. Bryant, 21 Wall. 43 (1874); Jones v. Foster, 61 Wis. 29 (1884); 19 Wall. 225; 3 Dill. 463; 40 Ind. 179.

HEARINGn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The act or power of perceiving sound; perception of sound; the faculty or sense by which sound is perceived; as, my hearing is good. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. Job xlii. 5. Attention to what is delivered; opportunity to be heard; audience; as, I could not obtain a hearing. A listening to facts and evidence, for the sake of adjudication; a session of a court for considering proofs and determining issues. His last offenses to us Shall have judicious hearing. Shak. Another hearing before some other court. Dryden. Extent within which sound may be heard; sound; earshot. "She's not within hearing." Shak. They laid him by the pleasant shore, And in the hearing of the wave. Tennyson.

hearingnoun

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 sense used to perceive sound. | The distance or physical region within which something may be heard; earshot. | Something heard; a report or piece of news. | The act by which something is heard; the act of perceiving by sound or the auditory sense. | A proceeding at which discussions are heard. | A legal procedure done before a judge, without a jury, as with an evidentiary hearing. | A scolding.

hearingadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Able to hear, as opposed to deaf.

hearingverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

present participle and gerund of hear

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