Definition
An Old Law French verb meaning to leave, let, or suffer — and in legal usage, to omit, neglect, or fail to act. In historical common law pleading and records, *laissier* appeared in phrases indicating a party's failure or neglect to perform some duty or act, often forming part of a formal allegation that something was left undone or allowed to pass without the required response.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working with medieval English legal records, Year Books, or early common law pleading will encounter *laissier* embedded in Law French formulaic phrases rather than as a standalone term. Its significance is almost entirely contextual: the word signals omission or passive failure, as distinct from active wrongdoing. This distinction matters when interpreting early pleadings, because a charge framed around *laissier* is typically one of nonfeasance — a failure to act — rather than misfeasance or malfeasance.
The term is unlikely to appear in post-seventeenth-century legal materials in its Law French form. After Law French was effectively abolished as a language of pleading in England (by statute in the mid-seventeenth century, with formal records following), terms like *laissier* survive only in historical transcription, glossary work, and scholarly commentary on early records. A researcher who encounters it in a printed source should treat it as a relic term requiring translation back into its English legal equivalent — typically "to omit," "to neglect," or "to suffer" (in the older sense of permitting something to occur).
Burrill flags Kelham as the supporting authority. Thomas Kelham's *Glossary of Norman and Old French Words* (1779) is a standard reference for Law French legal vocabulary, and researchers working on early plea rolls or Year Books should consult Kelham directly for fuller illustrative phrases in which *laissier* appears.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only entry among the Law Mind shelf dictionaries. The definition is spare: "To prevent; to omit or neglect," with the single citation to Kelham. The pairing of "to prevent" with "to omit or neglect" is slightly awkward and likely reflects Burrill's attempt to capture two related but distinct uses — one in which *laissier* describes failing to stop something from occurring (leaving it to happen), and one in which it describes failing to do something required. Both senses resolve to the concept of passive inaction or omission.
No other major historical legal dictionary in the Law Mind corpus (Black's, Bouvier's, Tomlin's, Jacob's) carries a separate entry for *laissier*, which reflects the term's narrow scope as a Law French relic rather than an operative term of substantive law. Researchers should not expect doctrinal content from this word; its value is purely interpretive and linguistic.
Jurisdictional Note
Relevant only to English legal history and records predating the abolition of Law French pleading. No American jurisdictional significance.