Definition
A Latin term from medieval English law meaning "impleaded" or "sued." The word describes the status of a person who has been brought before a court as a defendant — one against whom a legal action has been commenced. It appears in medieval legal records, statutes, and treatises to denote a party subjected to judicial process, particularly in actions before royal justices.
Why It Matters in Research
IMPLACITATUS is a term researchers will encounter almost exclusively in Latin legal records and early common law sources — plea rolls, writs, and treatises from the medieval period through the early modern era. It is not a term of art in modern practice and will not appear in contemporary statutes or case law under this form.
The primary research trap is mistaking the term for a substantive legal status rather than a procedural description. IMPLACITATUS simply marks that process has been initiated against a party; it says nothing about the nature of the claim, the outcome, or the stage of proceedings.
Researchers working in the Year Books, Bracton, Fleta, or records touching on the Statute of Westminster II (1285) will encounter this word in its procedural context. The phrase flagged in Burrill — *cum aliquis implacitatus coram aliquibus justitiariis* — appears in provisions governing the conduct of proceedings before justices and is a useful anchor for locating the term in context. Chapter 31 of Westminster II deals with procedural rights and the conduct of justices, making this appearance of IMPLACITATUS a marker for jurisdictional and procedural discussions rather than substantive law.
The verbal root IMPLACITARE (to implead) is more commonly encountered than this participial form. Researchers who find IMPLACITATUS in a record should cross-reference the action described using IMPLACITARE and its English derivative IMPLEAD to trace the full procedural history of a matter.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only significant treatment among the shelf sources. Burrill defines IMPLACITATUS straightforwardly as "impleaded; sued" and supplies the participial construction *implacitatus coram aliquibus justitiariis* — impleaded before certain justices — drawn from the Statute of Westminster II, chapter 31. Burrill also directs readers to Bracton (fol. 102b) and Fleta (lib. 2, c. 60, § 22), both of which use the term in procedural discussions of actions before royal courts. These cross-references confirm that IMPLACITATUS was standard Latin legal vocabulary across the major treatise tradition of the thirteenth century.
No meaningful divergence exists among historical sources on this term — its meaning is stable and narrow. The historical record does not reveal any contested or extended usage. What the sources collectively confirm is that this is procedural vocabulary, not a substantive legal concept requiring interpretation.