I just ran across this mysterious emotion, er, motion -- "craving oyer" -- in a Virginia case. This sentiment seems over 40 years dead in most places, but in the Old Dominion it's still going strong. The Corpus Juris Secundum explains it (citations omitted):
"Oyer," in the old English practice, meant hearing; the hearing a deed read, which a party sued on a bond, etc., might pray or demand, and it was then "read" to him by the other party .... In modern practice, "oyer" means a copy of a bond or specialty sued on, given to the opposite party, in lieu of the old practice of reading it.
Oyer is the counterpart of profert. In the time of oral pleading, "to crave oyer" meant demanding to hear a reading of the instrument of which profert was made; but since the days of written pleading it has meant demanding to have a copy, that the party craving oyer, may, if necessary, spread on the record, to enable him or her to make a defense....
Under statutes, the archaic ceremony of craving oyer is unknown; oyer is superseded by a statute with respect to the production of papers or books for inspection.
Anyone with pictures of a craving oyer ceremony -- or videos of its reënactment -- is encouraged to post them in the comments.
That could be shame as much as anything, though.
By the way, what does everyone think about the diacritcal mark over the second "e" in "reenactment"? Is it necessary, helpful, distracting?
http://russeyfamily.com/court.jpg
Not this time, tho.
According to one law dictionary, "oyez" means "hear ye" and is the plural of "oyer." And yes, it does come from Law French. Until now, I thought that "oyez" was just a high-falutin way of saying "all ears" ("high-falutin" is a mocking bombastic pronunciation of "high-floating"). "Oyez" is pronounced "O yes" and some people think that it means "O yes."
The law is full of strange terms like "service of process" and "prayer for relief" in a plaintiff's brief. I never used the term "prayer" in my briefs because it seems so archaic.
while Oyez is the second person plural, or imperative = [You] hear, or Listen up!
Unfortunately, since you basically can't do motions for summary judgment in Virginia, getting a contract or other instrument on the record early doesn't usually help to avoid having to go to trial. (As far as I know, Virginia is the only state that does not allow the use of deposition transcripts to support summary judgment, which makes it really hard to ever get enough information on the record early to support SJ.)
No, it's not.
Sorry, I should have said that "O yes" is just one of different pronunciations.
Here is the complete definition with pronunciations (the pronunciation symbols are not reproducible here)—
Just yesterday I was before a Circuit Court Judge in Loudoun County, VA on a case where a Virginia Supreme Court case from 1834 --- which deals with a property deal that dates back to 1774 --- may well be the deciding factor in determining which limitations period applied to a lawsuit filed in 2007.
However, Oyez, Oyez, is pronounced O-yes, O-ye, because one of the exceptions to the silent last letter rule is when the last letter is a consonant, and the first letter of the next word is a vowel.
Am not a lawyer, but having been a plaintiff and witness in a civil case in TX, I once asked my lawyer to explain to me the "vwa dir" process. It took us a for her to understand my question because I was pronouncing voir dire in French!!
You want confusing and frustrating? Try dealing with the clerks of the D.C. Superior Court. And what is with California forcing defendants to pay for the right to file defensive pleadings?
I, too, was in Judge Horne's courtroom for motions yesterday afternoon. Small world.
I am not surprised. In Los Angeles County Superior Court, a charge is made for filing motions. As I remember, the charge was around $20 a few years ago.
Despite this hefty charge, a judge very rudely denied a motion of mine by entering the courtroom for just a few seconds and not even bothering to sit down in her seat. I also wanted to ask her a question but did not have a chance to do so because she left the courtroom so quickly.
I presume that many of the court officers who say "oyez" are not aware of the subtleties of pronunciation of Law French.
You should never, ever say "I am not a lawyer" -- that invites contempt from those who are. My blog has a picture of a dummy seated in a coin-operated, do-it-yourself electric chair, and the dummy's last words are "I am not a lawyer" -- that is what I think of the expression.
Attorneys try to intimidate laypeople by using high-falutin jargon.
An attorney commenting on my blog called me ignorant about the law because I did not know the differences between "parody" and "satire" in fair use law. I made the pettifogger look like the world's biggest dunghill by showing that the law profession itself is confused about the differences in the meanings of the two terms.
Sadly, the folks behind the counter at Judiciary Square don't seem to know much Norman French or legal Latin, or even English for that matter. I'd rather Crave Oyer any day of the week in the Commonwealth than cross the Potomac and deal with the bureaucratic disaster otherwise known as the District of Columbia court system.
Think about it -- can you devise a better way of honoring original intent and inhibiting judicial activism run amok? Works for me...
Once you learn the vocab and a few minor quirks, the system in Virginia actually sort of makes sense, and frankly, operates more efficiently than a lot of places.
I get it. The diacritical didn't seem like your normal, no-nonsense style.
Just to lay my cards on the table, the use of diacriticals is a pet peeve for me. When I read the New Yorker, and see how they print the word "cooperation," I wonder why they think I need the extra help to understand the word.
Some law dictionaries have etymologies of terms, so this is research that one could do on one's own.
I would think that formal instruction in Law French might be provided by French language departments or French or European history departments, maybe in conjunction with law schools. And maybe the courses would be directed research.
The website of the Louisiana State University's French Studies Graduate Program says,
I would think that LSU would be an especially good university for such studies because of the French heritage of Louisiana.
Also, maybe Law French could be part of a general course in non-English legal terms. Latin legal terms are of course especially common. I found Black's Law Dictionary to be an especially good source of Latin legal terms and expressions, particularly maxims.
Then again, in Pennsylvania, we still call Clerks of Court "Prothonotaries." Don't expect your spell-check to accept it.
And Judge Horne is one of Virginia's finest Circuit Court jurists. In my one case before him, I still remember vividly his resolution of a contentious deposition conflice by ordering the parties to complete the depositions in his jury room.
Well, since my salary is paid out from such fee according to Cal. Bus.&Prof. Code Sec. 6321.1, I guess I should be grateful for such a system.
But, it seems to me, like Univ. of Cal. system and Cal State U. system, the judicial system in California is being transformed into a user-fee based system, rather than operate with the budget from general fund. It's very likely the current $320 uniform civil fee will be increased significantly to pay for the proposed Court Facility Revenue Bond.
H.L. Mencken is guest-blogging this week?
"Resist the temptation to point out that Virginia law is unique or peculiar. You may have the urge to point out that 'detinue' in Virginia is called 'replevin' everywhere else. No. Don't mock the system. You want to be part of it."