Nisi prius
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Nisi Prius, in English law, is a term used to denote generally all actions tried before judges of the King's Bench Division.
[edit] Trial at Nisi Prius
Translates as ‘unless sooner’ or ‘unless before’. Magna Carta and the Assize of Clarendon provided for the trial of serious criminal cases on circuit.
Travel to London used to be an intolerable burden, so in 1285 the Statute of Westminser II provided for trial of fact in civil cases on circuit, so as to avoid bringing the parties, witnesses and jurors up to London. The action was, however, still started in London; the preliminaries were dealt with there, and the sheriff was ordered to have the jurors there for trial on a certain day, unless before (nisi prius) that day the justices of assize came to the plaintiff’s county.
As a rule actions only are tried at nisi prius, and a judge is said to sit at nisi prius when he sits, usually in the King's Bench Division, for the trial of actions. By a resolution passed by the judges of the King's Bench Division in 1894 it was declared of the utmost importance that there should be at least three courts of nisi prius sitting continuously throughout the legal year: one for special jury causes, one for common jury causes, and one for causes without juries.
[edit] Nisi Prius Record
Nisi Prius Record was, before the Judicature Acts of 1873 and 1875, the name of the formal copy of proceedings showing the history of the case up to the time of trial. After the trial it was endorsed with the posteri, showing the result of the trial, and delivered by the officer of the court to the successful party, whose possession of the postea was his title to judgment. Since the Judicature Acts there is no nisi prius record in civil actions, the nearest approach to it being the deposit of copies of the pleadings for the use of the judge, and there is no postea, the certificate of the associate or Master as to the result of the trial superseding it.
[edit] Trivia
Nisi Prius is mentioned in the Gilbert & Sullivan Operetta The Mikado, in the Song "As some day it May Happen": "And that Nisi Prius nuisance, who just now is rather rife, The Judicial humorist--I've got him on the list!"
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
