Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "eight such" or "eight such men." At common law, *octo tales* was the name of a writ issued when a jury panel at trial was deficient in numbers, commanding the sheriff to summon eight additional jurors of the same character as those originally summoned on the panel. The writ was a mechanism for completing a jury when the original pool had been exhausted or was otherwise insufficient to seat a full panel.
Common Confusion
*Octo tales* is sometimes loosely grouped with *tales de circumstantibus* (summoning bystanders in court) as if they are the same procedure. They are related but distinct. *Tales de circumstantibus* draws jurors from persons present in the courthouse at the moment of need. *Octo tales* and *decem tales* are formal writs directed to the sheriff to go out and summon a specified number of persons. The distinction matters in historical records because the two procedures left different documentary traces: a *tales de circumstantibus* would appear as a court order entered in the minute book, while an *octo tales* writ would appear as a formal writ issued from the court and returned by the sheriff.
Why It Matters in Research
*Octo tales* is a narrow procedural term with essentially no modern application. It belongs to the historical machinery of common law jury practice, relevant to researchers tracing the evolution of jury selection, panel completion procedures, and the sheriff's role in court administration.
The term connects most usefully to the broader entry for *tales* and *tales de circumstantibus*, the parent doctrine under which supplementary jurors were summoned from bystanders or the surrounding community when an original panel was short. *Octo tales* simply specifies the quantity — eight — and the formal writ mechanism for obtaining them, as opposed to the more informal summoning of bystanders. The companion writ *decem tales* performs the same function for ten jurors; both are named variants of the same procedural device.
Researchers working in pre-nineteenth-century English or American trial records may encounter writs of this type in court files, minute books, or sheriff's returns. The writ form would have been directed to the sheriff and would appear in the record as an order to complete the panel. Its presence signals a problematic venire — jurors disqualified, absent, or challenged to the point that the original panel could not seat a full jury.
The primary historical authority cited across all source dictionaries is Blackstone's *Commentaries*, Book 3, page 364. Researchers seeking the doctrinal foundation should consult that passage directly. No meaningful statutory or case law development of this specific writ appears in the American common law tradition; the practice largely dissolved as statutory jury selection procedures replaced the older sheriff-summoning model.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries treat *octo tales* consistently, and the entries are substantially identical in substance: the writ issues at common law when eight additional jurors are needed to fill the panel at a trial at bar, commanding the sheriff to summon them. All four anchor the definition to Blackstone, Book 3, page 364.
Rapalje & Lawrence cross-references *tales* rather than providing an independent entry, which correctly reflects the term's status as a specific application of the broader tales doctrine rather than a freestanding concept. Burrill's formulation — "eight such men as were summoned upon the first panel" — is the most precise, capturing the requirement that supplemental jurors be of the same character or qualification as those on the original venire. This is the substantive point the shorter entries leave implicit: the writ was not simply an order to find eight warm bodies, but to find eight persons matching the original qualification standard.
No source dictionary flags any American statutory development or departure from the English common law form. The historical record is uniform and thin, reflecting a term that was largely a formula rather than a site of legal contest.