Definition
Non vult contendere is a Latin plea in a criminal proceeding meaning "he will not contest it." The defendant neither admits nor formally denies the criminal charge but declines to offer a defense against it. The plea has the same immediate legal effect as a guilty plea — the court may impose sentence upon it — but it is distinguished by the fact that it cannot be used as an admission of guilt in subsequent civil proceedings arising from the same conduct.
Non vult contendere is a variant form of the more widely used Latin plea nolo contendere. The two phrases are legally equivalent; the difference is purely linguistic. Courts and practitioners have historically treated them interchangeably, and modern American practice uses nolo contendere almost exclusively, though non vult contendere appears in older cases and some state records.
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Common Confusion
Non vult contendere is frequently treated as a distinct plea from nolo contendere, but there is no legal distinction between them. Both translate to an unwillingness to contest the charge, and both produce the same procedural and sentencing consequences. The variation in wording is a product of historical Latin usage rather than any difference in substantive legal meaning. Researchers encountering non vult contendere in older materials should treat it as a synonym for nolo contendere and not read any separate legal significance into the different phrasing.
A more substantive confusion exists between this plea and a guilty plea. A guilty plea is an express admission of guilt that may be used against the defendant in later civil litigation. A non vult or nolo contendere plea is not, in most jurisdictions, admissible as an admission in a subsequent civil action — a distinction that often drives the strategic choice between the two.
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Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in older case reporters, particularly from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, will encounter non vult contendere where modern materials would use nolo contendere. The terms index differently in some historical digests and legal databases, so a search limited to one form may miss relevant authority under the other. When tracing the law of no-contest pleas backward through the corpus, treat both terms as the same search target.
The civil consequences doctrine — that the plea cannot be used as an admission in civil proceedings — is the primary reason defendants elect this plea over a guilty plea in cases where parallel civil liability is anticipated. This distinction is not always well preserved in historical treatments, and older sources occasionally blur the line between the plea's criminal and civil effects. Modern statutory treatment of nolo contendere (and by extension non vult contendere) varies by jurisdiction, so the civil-effect rule is not universal.
The truncated Black's entry — the source fragment cuts off mid-sentence — signals that the second edition treats non vult as a cross-reference to the fuller nolo contendere entry rather than a freestanding doctrine. Researchers should follow that internal reference when working with Black's and not assume the non vult entry is self-contained.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) defines non vult contendere as "He (the defendant in a criminal case) will not contest it," describing it as "[a] plea legally equivalent to that of guilty, being a variation of the form 'nolo'" — the entry breaks off at that point, indicating that the substantive treatment is located under nolo contendere. This structure confirms that even in early twentieth-century American legal lexicography, non vult contendere was understood as a synonym rather than an independent plea with its own doctrine.
The historical sources do not distinguish between the two Latin forms in any substantive way. What the historical record does reflect, and what Black's 2nd does not fully develop, is the downstream civil-immunity rationale that became the primary practical significance of the plea. That doctrinal elaboration belongs to the nolo contendere entry and the cases construing it.
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Jurisdictional Note
Not all American jurisdictions permit a nolo contendere or non vult contendere plea. Where the plea is permitted, whether it operates as a bar to civil use of the criminal proceeding varies by statute and court rule. Federal courts require judicial consent before accepting the plea under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
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