VENIRE FACIAS

6 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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VENIRE FACIASAuthored
The Law Mind • 1445 words
Definition
A venire facias is a judicial writ issued out of a court of record and directed to the sheriff of the county where a cause is to be tried, commanding him to cause a specified number of qualified persons to appear before the court on a named day to serve as jurors. The term derives from the Latin imperative "cause to come," which is the writ's operative command. Three distinct uses appear in the historical record: 1. Venire facias juratores — The primary and most familiar form. The writ commanding the sheriff to summon a panel of prospective jurors (typically twelve qualified persons, lawful men of the body of the county, not of kin to either party) for a civil or criminal trial. This is the foundational mechanism of jury assembly under the common law. 2. Venire facias ad respondendum — A writ directing the sheriff to cause a named individual to appear in court to answer a civil action. This is not a jury-summoning writ but rather a form of original process, functionally related to a summons. 3. Venire facias (penal statute / criminal context) — A writ causing a party indicted under a penal statute to appear and answer. Related to the respondendum form but arising specifically from penal indictment procedure. In modern American practice, the formal writ has been largely superseded by statutory and court-rule processes governing jury summoning. The term survives most commonly in two ways: as a collective noun for the pool of prospective jurors summoned (the venire), and as a historical reference point in opinions discussing the origins of jury selection procedure.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A judicial writ directing the sheriff to summon qualified persons to serve as jurors; also, a summons causing an indicted party to appear; sometimes used as a shorthand for venire facias ad respondendum. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A judicial writ or precept directed to the sheriff, requiring him to cause a certain number of qualified persons to appear in court at a specified time to serve as jurors; also a writ in the nature of a summons to cause a party indicted on a penal statute to appear. Editorial note: Common usage, including both Wiktionary and Webster's, captures the jury-summoning sense accurately but tends to collapse the three distinct forms into one description. The legal distinction between the jury-assembly writ (venire facias juratores) and the process writs (ad respondendum and the penal-statute variant) matters when reading historical pleading records, where context is necessary to determine which instrument is actually at issue.
Common Confusion
Venire facias is frequently shortened to venire in modern legal writing, but the two are not fully interchangeable. Venire facias is the formal writ; venire, standing alone, has come to refer in modern American usage to the panel of prospective jurors itself — the body of people summoned rather than the document commanding their summoning. Researchers encountering venire in contemporary opinions should not assume a writ is being discussed; researchers encountering venire facias in historical sources should not assume only jury selection is meant, given the respondendum and penal-statute variants. Venire facias should also be distinguished from a tales de circumstantibus (or tales), which is a supplementary writ issued when the original venire fails to produce a sufficient number of qualified jurors and the court draws bystanders or additional persons to complete the panel.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES Venire facias juratores — The core jury-assembly writ; directed to the sheriff; commands appearance of twelve (or a specified number of) qualified jurors for a civil or criminal trial. Venire facias ad respondendum — Original process writ commanding a named defendant's appearance to answer a civil suit; functionally analogous to a summons. Venire facias (penal statute) — Process commanding appearance of a party indicted under a penal statute; a criminal variant of the respondendum form.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in colonial, early American, or English common law materials will encounter venire facias regularly in pleading records, court minutes, and procedural treatises. Several research traps are worth flagging: Terminology collapse in primary sources: Early court records often use the shorthand venire or venire facias without specifying which variant is meant. Surrounding context — civil versus criminal proceeding, whether a party or a panel is being assembled — is the only reliable guide. Transition from writ to statute: In American jurisdictions, the formal writ of venire facias was progressively replaced by statutory jury-summoning procedures from the nineteenth century onward. Sources from the mid-1800s forward may reference the old writ terminology while describing what is functionally a statutory process. Do not assume that a reference to venire facias in a nineteenth-century opinion means the formal writ machinery was still fully operative in that jurisdiction. The venire as a corpus connection: Because venire facias is the ancestor of the modern jury pool, research into jury selection challenges, voir dire practice, Batson issues, and fair cross-section doctrine will often trace back through venire facias procedure for historical grounding. The writ's requirement that jurors be of the body of the county is an early marker of the localism that later evolved into venue and vicinage doctrine. Sheriff's return: The venire facias writ required the sheriff to make a return indicating who had been summoned. These returns — found in court files and county records — are primary sources for studying who was eligible and actually served as a juror in a given era. For social history and legal history researchers, these returns can be more informative than the writ itself. Multiple dictionary sources here are in close agreement on the jury-assembly definition but truncate the entry, cutting off before completing the full text of the writ's requirements. Researchers should be aware that the qualification language (not of kin to either party, qualified according to law) was substantive, not merely formal, and generated its own body of challenge and disqualification doctrine.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) and Burrill's Law Dictionary are in close agreement on the core definition: a judicial writ to the sheriff commanding him to cause twelve good and lawful men of the body of his county to appear before the court, qualified according to law and not of kin to either party. All three sources frame the writ in its jury-assembly sense as primary. Burrill adds the parenthetical translation — "You cause to come" — which is useful for researchers encountering the Latin phrasing in historical documents and needing to confirm the operative verb. A notable limitation across all three sources: the entries as provided are truncated, cutting off mid-sentence. This means the full qualification language, the return requirements, and any treatment of the writ's variants (particularly the ad respondendum and penal-statute forms) are not captured in the dictionary text available. Webster's 1913, though not a legal dictionary, actually provides a more complete picture of the writ's multiple uses than the truncated legal dictionary entries do — a useful reminder that cross-referencing general and legal dictionaries can recover information lost to abbreviation. None of the historical sources addresses the transition to statutory summoning procedures or the survival of venire as a term of art for the jury panel itself. These are post-compilation developments that researchers must track through statutory history and case law rather than the dictionaries.
Jurisdictional Note
In English practice, the venire facias operated within a unified common law writ system administered through royal courts. American states adapted the writ through reception statutes and local practice, with considerable variation in timing and method of replacement by statutory process. Researchers should check the relevant state's statutory history to determine when formal writ practice gave way to modern jury-summoning procedure, as the transition dates differ meaningfully across jurisdictions.
Related Terms
Venire — The summoned jury panel; modern shorthand derived from this writ Tales de circumstantibus — Supplementary writ to complete an insufficient panel Voir dire — The examination process that follows summoning under venire facias Jury array — The assembled panel as a collective subject to challenge Challenge to the array — Attack on the validity of the entire venire as summoned Vicinage — The geographic-community requirement echoed in the writ's "body of the county" language Summons — Modern procedural analog for defendant-appearance process Original process — Category of writs that includes venire facias ad respondendum Sheriff's return — The sheriff's formal response documenting execution of the writ Writ — Parent concept; the formal written command of which venire facias is one species
VENIRE FACIASmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
Lat. In practice. A judicial writ, directed to the sheriff of the county in which a cause is to be tried, com- manding him that he cause to come before the court, on a certain day therein mentioned, twelve good and lawful men of the body of his county, qualified according to law, by whom the truth of the matter may be the better known, and who are in no wise of kin either to the plaintiff or to the defendant, to | VENTER, VENTRE inake a jury of the country between the par- ties in the action, because as well the plain- tiff as the defendant, between whom the mat- ter in variance is, have put themselves upon that jury, and that he return the names of the jurors, etc. 2 Tidd, Pr. 777, 778; 3 B). Comm. 352.
VENIRE FACIASmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
Lat. In practice. A judicial writ, directed to the sheriff of the county in which a cause is to be tried, commanding him that he “cause to come” before the court, on a certain day therein mentioned, twelve good and lawful men of the body of his county, qualified according to law, by whom the truth of the matter may be the better known, and who are in no wise of kin either to the plaintiff or to the defendant, to make a jury of the country between the parties in the action, because as well the plaintiff as the defendant, between whom the matter in variance is, have put themselves upon that jury, and that he return the names of the jurors, etc. 2 Tidd, Pr. 777, 778; 3 Bil. Comm. 352. —Venire facias ad respondendum. A writ to summon a person, against whom an indictment for a misdemeanor has been found, to appear and be arraigned for the offense. A justice’s warrant is pow more commonly used. Archb. Crim. Pl. 81; Sweet—Venire facias de novo. A fresh or new venire, which the court grants when there has been some impropriety or irregularity in returning the jury. or where the verdict is so imperfect or ambiguous that no judgment can be given upon it, or where a judgment is reve on error, and a new trial awarded. See Rosseker v. Cramer. 18 Ind. 44; Maxwell v. Wright, 160 Ind. 515, 67 N. E. 267.—Venire facias juratores was a judicial writ directed to the sheriff, when issue was joined in an action. commanding him to cause to come to Westminster, on such a day, twelve free and lawful men of his county by whom the truth of the matter at isene might be hetter known. This writ was abolished by section 104 of the common-law procedure act. 1852. and by section 105 a precept issued by the judges of assize is substituted in its place. The process so substituted is sometimes loosely spoken of as a “ventre.” Brown.—Venire facias tot matronas. A writ to summon & jury of matrons to execnte the writ de ventre énspiciendo.
VENIRE FACIASmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1870
L. Lat. (You cause to come.) In practice. A judicial writ, directed to the sheriff of the county in which a cause is to be tried, commanding him that he cause to come before the court, on a certain day therein mentioned, twelve good and lawful men of the body of his county, qualified according to law, by whom the truth of the matter may be the better known, and who are in no wise of kin either to the plaintiff or to the defendant, to make a jury of the country between the parties in the action, because as well the plaintiff as the defendant, between whom the matter in variance is, have put themselves upon the jury; and that he return the names of the jurors, &c. 2 Tidd's Pr. 777, 778. 3 Bl. Com. 352. So termed from the emphatic words of the Latin form: Præcipimus tibi quod venire facias coram justitiariis nostris apud Westmonasterium, à die, &c. duodecim, dc. We command you that you cause to come before our justices at Westminster, on the day, &c. twelve, &c. Reg. Jud. 7, 30 b. In English practice, though the venire facias is always sued out, it is not used; it being the practice of the court to suppose that the jurors have been summoned upon it, and have failed to appear; and upon this fictitious default another writ called a distringas is awarded on the record, which is accordingly issued at the same time with the venire, and under which the jury are in fact summoned to try the cause. Steph. Plead. 80. See Distringas juratores. In the United States, the venire has been generally adopted, though in some states it has been dispensed with, except in special cases. 2 N. Y. Rev. St. [410,] 331, § 9. The venire facias is a very ancient writ, and was formerly used in England for a great variety of purposes. Bracton mentions a writ of this kind issued to the sheriff to inquire whether a certain grantor of lands was of sound mind, and otherwise of capacity to convey, on the day of the grant. Bract. fol. 14 b. Many special writs of venire are contained in the Register, but these have long been disused. Reg. Jud. tabula.
VENIRE FACIASn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A judicial writ or precept directed to the sheriff, requiring him to cause a certain number of qualified persons to appear in court at a specified time, to serve as jurors in said court. A writ in the nature of a summons to cause the party indicted on a penal statute to appear. Called also venire.
venire faciasnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
A judicial writ or precept directed to the sheriff, requiring him to summon a certain number of qualified persons to a court case to serve as jurors. | A summons to cause the party indicted on a penal statute to appear. | Clipping of venire facias ad respondendum, a writ directed to the sheriff, requiring him to cause the person named in the writ to appear in court to respond to a civil (non-criminal) claim against him or her.

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