Definition
"Mag" functions in legal contexts primarily as an informal abbreviation for magistrate, and occasionally for magistrates' court or magistrate's order. As a standalone term it carries no independent legal definition; its meaning depends entirely on context. In legal research, the abbreviation appears most frequently in docket notations, court minutes, case summaries, and secondary legal literature, where "Mag." or "Mag" precedes a judicial title, identifies a court, or shortens case-report references.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Clipping of magazine, magnet, magnesium, mag wheel, magnitude, magistrate, or magnetometer — a general-purpose shortening with no dominant single meaning in ordinary English.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not independently listed; "mag" appeared chiefly in dialectal use meaning to chatter or gossip, unrelated to legal usage.
Editorial note: The legal use of "mag" as a shorthand for magistrate or magistrates' court is functionally invisible in ordinary English, where the abbreviation more commonly suggests magazine. Researchers encountering "Mag." in older English court records or case citations should not assume the modern informal reading; the legal shorthand is the operative meaning in those contexts.
Common Confusion
Burrill's entry adjacent to the source material for this term touches on "macegriffer" — those who bought and sold stolen flesh — an entirely distinct archaic term that happens to appear near "mag" in the dictionary's alphabetical arrangement. This proximity can mislead a researcher scanning Burrill: macegriffer is not a variant of, or related to, "mag." Additionally, "mag" as a shortening of magistrate should not be confused with the full office and its powers, which vary substantially across jurisdictions and historical periods. See MAGISTRATE for the complete treatment.
Why It Matters in Research
The primary research challenge with "mag" is that it is an abbreviation, not a term of art, and its meaning must be inferred from surrounding context. Several navigational points apply:
First, in English legal records from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, "Mag." most commonly abbreviates magistrate or magistrates' court — a summary jurisdiction body with powers distinct from superior courts. A case noted as heard before "the Mag." was heard in a different procedural universe than one before common law or equity courts.
Second, American federal practice has formalized a related usage: Federal Rules of Civil Procedure filings frequently reference magistrate judges with the designation "Mag. J." or simply "Mag." in docket entries. A researcher pulling federal dockets will encounter this abbreviation continuously; it signals a United States Magistrate Judge exercising referred jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 636, not an Article III judge.
Third, in older printed law reports — particularly English reports before standardized citation systems — "Mag." can appear as part of an abbreviated court or reporter designation. Confirm the full title before treating the citation as complete.
Fourth, the term appears in no statutory definition and has no common-law meaning of its own. It carries whatever meaning the magistrate concept carries in the jurisdiction and period in question. Research on "mag" is therefore always research on the underlying office — route to MAGISTRATE and, where relevant, to MAGISTRATES' COURT, JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, and SUMMARY JURISDICTION.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary does not carry an independent entry for "mag" as a legal term. The source material surfaced by the corpus places "mag" alphabetically near entries concerning persons of unsound mind and the archaic term "macegriffer" (those who knowingly bought and sold stolen flesh, drawn from Britton and Spelman). This placement is an artifact of alphabetical proximity, not substantive connection. Burrill treats "mag" only as a fragment within surrounding entries, not as a defined term.
Other historical dictionaries in the law library tradition — Jacob's Law Dictionary, Tomlin's Law Dictionary, Black's early editions — address magistrate at length but do not separately define "mag" as an abbreviation. This silence is consistent: abbreviations of this kind were treated as self-evident shorthand in legal practice and did not require formal dictionary entries.
What historical sources miss is the modern formalization of the magistrate-judge role in federal practice, which gives "Mag." a precise institutional meaning that earlier English and American usage did not require.
Jurisdictional Note
In English and Welsh practice, magistrates' courts retain broad summary criminal jurisdiction and certain civil functions; "mag" in British legal shorthand carries that institutional weight. In United States federal courts, "Mag. J." refers to a magistrate judge whose authority derives from Article I and statutory delegation, not Article III tenure. State-level usage varies widely; in some jurisdictions the magistrate is a minor judicial officer, in others a court of significant jurisdiction.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See MAGISTRATE. See also MAGISTRATES' COURT; SUMMARY JURISDICTION.