Definition
Latin: "Therefore it is considered." A formal phrase that historically opened the entry of judgment on the court record in a common law action at law, when pleadings and records were kept in Latin. The phrase served both as a ritual formula signaling the court's judgment and as a descriptive name for that portion of the record itself — the judgment entry. In older English practice, the complete entry of judgment would begin with these words, recording the court's conclusion that a party was entitled to the relief or outcome determined. By extension, lawyers and clerks used "ideo consideratum est" as a shorthand label for the judgment section of a legal record, much as "whereas" clauses came to name entire categories of document provisions.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is primarily a navigational marker for researchers working in historical common law records, particularly English and early American court records predating the transition away from Latin pleading. Several points deserve attention.
First, the phrase belongs to a cluster of Latin record-keeping formulas that dissolved from routine use in England following the Pleading in English Act of 1730 (4 Geo. II, c. 26), which required court proceedings to be conducted in English rather than Latin. American courts, which had already been moving toward English-language records in the colonial period, largely abandoned these formulas earlier and more unevenly. Researchers encountering the phrase in American records should treat it as a strong indicator of early colonial or pre-revolutionary documentation, or of direct copying from English precedent books.
Second, the phrase functions both as a record formula and as a term of art for the judgment section itself. A source might use "ideo consideratum est" to mean the specific Latin words that begin a judgment entry, or it might use the phrase as a label for the entire judgment block on a record roll. Context determines which meaning applies. This dual function can create confusion when historical sources reference "the ideo consideratum est" without specifying whether they mean the phrase or the document section it denotes.
Third, researchers tracing the evolution of judgment entry forms will find this phrase connected to the broader record structure of common law pleading — declarations, pleas, replications, and final judgment entries all had their conventional Latin openings. Understanding where "ideo consideratum est" appears in the sequence helps locate a document within the pleading stages. Burrill notes its use as far back as the reign of Edward I (Mem. in Scacc. 20 Edw. I), giving it a lineage stretching into thirteenth-century English practice.
Fourth, the phrase connects closely to the concept of the judgment roll and to the distinction between judgment and execution. The ideo consideratum est entry recorded the court's considered determination; separate formulas governed the writ of execution that followed. Researchers should not conflate the judgment entry with the execution record.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The historical sources are consistent on the core translation and function, with Burrill providing the most substantive treatment. Black's (both editions) and Black's (2nd ed.) offer nearly identical short entries, confirming that this is a term of modest complexity — the historical dictionaries treated it as a lookup reference point rather than a term requiring extended analysis. Bouvier's entry is truncated in the surviving source, directing readers to "CONSIDERATUM EST," suggesting Bouvier treated the phrases as a family requiring consolidated treatment rather than individual entries.
Burrill's entry is the most useful for research purposes: it traces the phrase back to the Memoranda of the Exchequer under Edward I and to Year Book sources under Edward II, and cites Blackstone's Commentaries (3 Bl. Com. 396) and Burrow's Practice (1 Burr. Pr. 254) for its continued, if vestigial, use in modern practice as of Burrill's time. The reference to Croke's reports (Cro. Jac. 36) places it in early seventeenth-century English case literature as well. Rapalje & Lawrence direct readers to CONSIDERATUM EST, indicating these terms were treated as substantially synonymous or as parts of the same formula cluster.
What the historical dictionaries do not address is the American reception of these formulas — how long they persisted in individual colonies and states, and whether any American jurisdictions retained Latin judgment forms longer than others. That gap is significant for researchers working in colonial American court records.
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Jurisdictional Note
The phrase derives from English common law record practice and has no continuing operative legal significance in modern American or English courts. Its relevance is essentially historical. Researchers encountering it in American records should consult the specific jurisdiction's history of Latin pleading abolition, as timing varied by colony and state.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Judgment (Common Law Forms); Latin Pleading and the Transition to English Records; Common Law Pleading — Record Structure.
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