Definition
Out of term refers to a period when no court term is in session — the interval, recess, or vacation that falls between formally scheduled terms of court. Any judicial act, motion, filing, or proceeding described as occurring "out of term" takes place during this interstitial period rather than during an active sitting of the court.
At common law and under early American practice, courts operated on fixed term calendars. Business conducted outside those scheduled terms was legally distinct from business conducted during term, and certain actions could only be taken at one time or the other. Describing something as done "out of term" was therefore a precise temporal designation with procedural consequences.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No established general-usage entry. "Out of" signals absence or exclusion; "term" in ordinary speech means a period of time, a word or phrase, or a fixed tenure in office.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Term" is defined in part as "a fixed period of time; the time for which anything lasts" and specifically as "the time in which a court is held or is open for the trial of causes."
The common meaning of "term" as any bounded period of time is close to but not identical with the legal usage here. The legal phrase "out of term" is a term of art pointing specifically to the gap between scheduled court sessions — a concept that carries procedural weight invisible to the plain meaning of the words.
Why It Matters in Research
This phrase appears almost exclusively in older American and English legal materials. Researchers working in pre-twentieth century case law, procedural treatises, or early court records will encounter it regularly; it is rare in modern sources because continuous-session dockets and flexible scheduling have largely eliminated the hard distinction between term and vacation in most American courts.
Key research traps:
First, the procedural stakes of "out of term" action varied significantly by jurisdiction and by the type of act being performed. Some courts could issue orders out of term; others could not. Some motions had to be made in term; others could be heard by a judge sitting out of term in chambers. Assuming uniform rules across jurisdictions or across time will produce errors.
Second, older reporters and digests will index cases under "term" and "vacation" as distinct procedural categories. A researcher looking for precedent on whether a particular court action was valid may need to search both headings and understand which category controlled at the relevant time and place.
Third, the phrase connects directly to the concept of a court's jurisdiction over its own orders. Courts historically could not alter final judgments entered in a prior term — the term acted as a kind of closure. Understanding whether an action was in term or out of term is therefore sometimes essential to assessing whether a court had authority to act at all.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed., Supplemental) defines "out of term" as: "At a time when no term of the court is being held; in the vacation or interval which elapses between terms of the court." The entry cites McNeill v. Hodges, 99 N.C. 248, 6 S.E. 127, a North Carolina case.
The definition is accurate but minimal. It correctly identifies the core meaning — the interval between court terms — without elaborating on the procedural consequences that made the distinction legally significant. Researchers should treat the Black's entry as a starting point and consult contemporaneous procedural treatises and the applicable court rules of the relevant jurisdiction and era to understand what could and could not be done out of term in a given context.
No competing or contradictory definitions appear in the available historical sources. The phrase was sufficiently settled in usage that dictionaries treated it as self-explanatory, which makes the Black's entry representative of the historical consensus.
Jurisdictional Note
The practical significance of "out of term" is heavily dependent on the era and jurisdiction. Federal courts and most modern state courts have moved away from fixed-term calendars for general civil and criminal business, making the distinction largely obsolete in current practice. Researchers working with historical materials from English common law courts, early American state courts, or any jurisdiction that maintained strict term-based scheduling will find the concept most operative.