Definition
The term "seals" carries distinct legal meanings depending on context. In legal usage, it most commonly refers to:
1. Physical or formal seals affixed to legal instruments. A seal is a wax impression, embossed mark, adhesive wafer, or (in modern practice) the word "SEAL" or abbreviation "L.S." (locus sigilli) placed on a document to authenticate it, signal solemnity, or satisfy the formal requirements of a deed or contract under seal. The plural "seals" describes the aggregate use of these devices — as when multiple parties affix their seals to a single instrument, or when the validity of instruments across a class is discussed.
2. Official seals of courts, government bodies, and public officers. Courts, notaries, and agencies use official seals to authenticate process, certify records, and verify that documents originate from an authorized source. A document bearing a court's seal carries a presumption of authenticity.
3. Sealing of records. In modern procedural law, "sealing" describes court orders restricting public access to court records — including criminal records, juvenile records, and civil filings. "Seals" in this context refers to the operative effect of such orders or the class of records subject to them.
4. Louisiana succession practice (historical). In Louisiana civil law, seals were placed upon the effects (property) of a deceased person by a public officer as a formal mechanism for taking official custody of the succession — a procedure borrowed from French civil law. This usage is now largely obsolete in Louisiana practice but appears with some frequency in older Louisiana succession records and historical legal materials.
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Common Language
Wiktionary: Plural of seal — encompassing the aquatic mammal, a fastening device, a wax impression, or the act of closing something securely.
Webster's 1913: "Seals" as plural of seal: (1) the animal; (2) a stamp or die; (3) wax or other substance bearing an impression; (4) anything that confirms or authenticates.
The ordinary language meaning of "seals" (closures, animals, stamps) overlaps with the legal meaning only at the surface. In legal instruments, a seal carries specific doctrinal weight — it historically converted a simple contract into a "contract under seal," altering limitation periods, consideration requirements, and enforceability rules in ways that have no analog in everyday usage. A researcher who treats "seal" as merely decorative will miss the legal consequences attached to it.
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Common Confusion
Two distinct legal uses of "seals" are frequently conflated: (1) the formal seal on a contract or deed, which speaks to the instrument's legal character and enforceability, and (2) the sealing of court records, which is a procedural access-restriction mechanism with no direct connection to the contract-law doctrine. These are entirely separate bodies of law. Additionally, the Louisiana succession usage — sealing the effects of a decedent — is unrelated to either of the above and should not be read into general-law contexts where the term appears.
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Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Private seals: Seals of individuals, used historically to authenticate deeds and contracts under seal.
Corporate seals: The official seal of a corporation, once required for corporate instruments to be binding; largely abolished or made optional by modern corporate statutes in most U.S. jurisdictions.
Official/governmental seals: Seals of courts, notaries, public officers, and agencies authenticating process and certified records.
Court record seals: Judicial orders restricting public access to filed documents or case records.
Succession seals (Louisiana, historical): Official seals placed on a decedent's property pending succession proceedings under Louisiana civil law.
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Why It Matters in Research
The multi-contextual nature of "seals" creates real research hazards. When searching historical contracts and deeds, the presence or absence of a seal determines which body of doctrine applies — contracts under seal historically carried a different statute of limitations (often twenty years versus six), did not require consideration in some jurisdictions, and created presumptions that general-contract instruments did not. Researchers reading 19th-century contract disputes without this background will misread both the arguments and the outcomes.
In historical sources, the Louisiana succession usage appears without explanation because both editions of Black's simply cross-reference forward ("See —") without completing the entry in the excerpted material. Researchers relying solely on these dictionary fragments will find no substantive guidance and must consult Louisiana civil law sources directly.
For modern criminal and juvenile law research, "sealing" of records is a statutory creature that varies substantially by state — what one jurisdiction calls "sealing," another calls "expungement," and the legal effects differ. The Law Mind criminal encyclopedia entries on expungement and juvenile records address this variation in detail and should be consulted alongside any dictionary research.
Corpus researchers should also note that as corporate seal requirements were abolished (often by Uniform Business Corporation Act provisions in the mid-to-late 20th century), the significance of "seal" language in corporate instruments shifted from mandatory to ceremonial. Dating the instrument is essential to interpreting whether a corporate seal carries legal weight or is merely formal.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Both the first and second editions of Black's Law Dictionary offer only a narrow, jurisdiction-specific entry for "seals" — limited entirely to the Louisiana succession context. Both editions are textually identical on this point and both cross-reference forward to a related entry that is not reproduced in the available source material. This means the historical dictionary record for "seals" as captured in these editions is fragmentary: it documents one specialized civil law practice and ignores the far broader (and doctrinally richer) common law tradition of seals on instruments.
The silence of these editions on the contract-under-seal doctrine and on official/court seals is a meaningful gap. It likely reflects a drafting choice — those topics were handled under "SEAL" (singular) in the broader dictionary — but researchers using truncated or excerpted versions of Black's may not locate the primary treatment. The Louisiana entry, standing alone, can create a misleading impression that "seals" is primarily a civil law term of art, which it is not.
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Jurisdictional Note
The doctrinal significance of a seal on a private instrument has been substantially reduced or abolished by statute in most U.S. common law states, though some states retain modified versions of the seal doctrine for deeds and real property instruments. Louisiana's civilian succession seals procedure reflects French civil law heritage and does not apply in other U.S. jurisdictions.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Contracts — Contracts Under Seal and Statutory Substitutes (Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia)
Expungement, Sealing, and Record Clearing (Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)
Juvenile Records — Confidentiality and Sealing (Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)
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