scire facias

9.9

A court order asking someone to say why a court decision should not be enforced or should be cancelled

noun
/ˈsɪrɪ ˈfeɪʃəs/

Archaic

: scire facias

The court issued a scire facias to compel the debtor to appear and show cause.

Examples

A scire facias proceeding can be used to revive a dormant judgment.
His lawyer filed a response to the scire facias challenging the enforcement of the record.
The court issued a scire facias to enforce the judgment.
Can you explain what a scire facias is?
A scire facias proceeding can be used to revive a dormant judgment.
His lawyer filed a response to the scire facias challenging the enforcement of the record.
The court issued a scire facias to compel the debtor to appear and show cause.

Synonyms

judicial writ

vsscire facias

Formal

1 8.2

A document from a court that orders someone to do or stop something

is a specific court order forcing show cause about enforcing or annulling a record

Surface Forms

scire facias singular

scire facias plural

Morphology

scire + facias

This is a Latin legal formula rather than a compositional English phrase—the constituent items are not English words in learners' lexicon and carry no transparent, literal clues to the technical meaning. The sense is a specialised judicial writ (legalistic and language-specific), so a B1 learner who merely knows the surface constituents would not be able to derive its meaning.

Etymology

Scire facias comes from old Latin words scire ('to know') and facias ('you should make'), which together mean 'make known'. In law it became a court paper that tells a person to come and 'show cause' — to explain why an old record or judgment should not be used, so today it means a court order requiring someone to explain or defend the record.