Definition
Levari is a Latin term of art appearing in English common law, used exclusively as the opening word or abbreviated reference to the writ *levari facias* — a judicial writ directing the sheriff to levy upon a defendant's lands and goods (and, distinctively, the rents and profits of lands) to satisfy a judgment. Standing alone, "levari" is not a complete legal command; it functions as shorthand for the writ that bears it, much as "capias" or "scire" operate as abbreviated references to their respective writs.
The writ *levari facias* ("that you cause to be levied") was a form of execution available to a judgment creditor and occupied a distinct niche in the hierarchy of execution writs: unlike a *fieri facias*, which reached goods and chattels, the *levari facias* could reach the rents and profits issuing from a defendant's lands — making it particularly relevant where a debtor held land but possessed few movable assets.
Common Confusion
Levari is routinely encountered in legal sources only as an abbreviation of *levari facias*, and researchers sometimes treat the word as though it were itself the writ. It is not. The writ is *levari facias*; "levari" is the compressed form used in pleadings, writs books, and index entries. Separately, *levari facias* is occasionally confused with *fieri facias* (fi. fa.) because both are execution writs, but they operate differently: *fieri facias* reaches goods and chattels; *levari facias* reaches rents and profits of land, and in some usages the land itself under certain conditions. Researchers should also be careful to distinguish *levari facias* from *elegit*, another writ reaching land, which gave the creditor actual possession of a moiety of the debtor's lands until the debt was satisfied from the profits — a broader remedy than *levari facias* typically afforded.
Why It Matters in Research
The primary research trap with "levari" is indexing. Because it appears in historical sources only as a fragment — the first word of a writ name — it may be indexed under "L" as "levari," under "levari facias" as a full entry, or subsumed under broader treatments of execution writs with no dedicated heading at all. A researcher encountering "levari" in a historical pleading or court record must immediately resolve the reference to *levari facias* and consult writs-of-execution literature accordingly.
The writ had limited practical use in American practice. English common law transported *levari facias* to the colonies, but American jurisdictions progressively abolished or displaced the older forms of execution writ by statute — particularly after the mid-nineteenth century procedural reforms. By the time most American legal dictionaries were compiled, *levari facias* was either obsolete or confined to specialized proceedings (such as certain mortgage foreclosure or ecclesiastical contexts). Researchers working in early American court records (pre-1850) may encounter the writ in execution proceedings; researchers working in English equity or common law sources will encounter it with greater frequency.
Ecclesiastical court practice deserves specific mention: *levari facias* survived in English ecclesiastical proceedings longer than in many common law contexts, and researchers in ecclesiastical law sources should be alert to its continued appearance there.
Because "levari" standing alone has no legal content independent of *levari facias*, any research question about the term is ultimately a research question about that writ.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence do not carry a dedicated entry for "levari" or "levari facias" in the surviving indexed material — a significant gap, since both terms appear with regularity in the writ and execution literature of the period the dictionary covers. This absence is itself informative: by the late nineteenth century, when Rapalje & Lawrence was compiled, *levari facias* had receded sufficiently from American practice that it warranted no standalone treatment, likely being treated as an English or historical curiosity.
Earlier and more comprehensive English law dictionaries — Tomlin's *Law Dictionary*, Jacob's *Law Dictionary*, and Bouvier's in its earlier American editions — do carry entries for *levari facias* and situate it within the hierarchy of execution writs. These sources agree on the core content: the writ commands the sheriff to levy the rents and profits of land (and sometimes goods found on the land) to satisfy a judgment. There is some divergence in historical sources as to whether the writ could reach the corpus of the land itself or only its income streams — a distinction that mattered in practice and that researchers should resolve by consulting the primary sources of the jurisdiction and period in question.