Seriatim facts for kids

In law, seriatim is a Latin word that means "in series" or "one after another." When a court uses this term, it means they are dealing with several topics or questions in a specific order. This order is often the same as how the topics were first brought up in the case.

What Does Seriatim Mean in Law?

A seriatim opinion happens when a court has many judges, and each judge shares their own opinion. Instead of one judge writing an opinion for everyone, each judge explains their thoughts separately. This often happens when the judges don't all agree, and there isn't a clear majority opinion (where most judges agree).

Over time, lawyers and courts have started using fewer Latin words like seriatim. Groups like the Plain Language Movement encourage using "plain English" to make legal talk easier to understand.

Seriatim in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, seriatim is sometimes used to mean "one by one in order." For example, in older civil cases in English law, a defence statement might have said that every claim made by the other side was denied "as if set out in full and traversed herein seriatim." This just meant they were denying each point one after another.

You might also see seriatim in old deeds (legal documents for property) and contracts. It was a traditional way to say that rules or terms should apply "as if set out herein seriatim." This means the rules apply to the contract one by one. Sometimes, you might even find the longer phrase brevatim et seriatim, which means "briefly and in series."

The term is also used when someone is replying to a message that has many questions. They might say, "To deal with your queries seriatim..." This tells you they will answer each question in the same order it was asked.

Seriatim in the United States

In the United States, the practice of judges giving seriatim opinions changed a long time ago. During the time of Chief Justice Marshall (from 1801 to 1835), the Supreme Court of the United States stopped using this method. Instead, they started writing one main opinion for the court.

More recently, in 2009, a rule about changing legal documents before a trial was updated. This rule, called Rule 15(a)(1) of the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, was changed to make it faster to deal with legal issues. The change helps prevent people from bringing up new arguments "seriatim" (one by one over time), which could slow things down. Now, there's a shorter time limit to make changes, which helps speed up the court process.