Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

Circuit

n. 1. A judicial division in which hearings occur at several locations, as a result of which judges often travel to different courthouses. 2. A judicial division of the United States - that is, the 13 circuits where the U.S. courts of appeals sit.

Circuitus est evitandus

Circuity (roundabout proceeding) is to be avoided.

Circuitus est evitandus; et boni judicis est lites dirimere, ne lis ex lite oriatur

Circuity is to be avoided; and it is the role of a good judge to determine (or dispose of) litigations so that one lawsuit may not arise from another.

Circuity of action is, when an action is rightfully brought for a duty, but yet about the bush, as it were, for that it might as well have been otherwise answered and determined, and the suit saved: a

Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

See UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT.

Dolus circuitu non purgatur

Fraud is not purged by circuity.

Federal Circuit

See COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

An intermediate-level appellate court with jurisdiction to hear appeals in patent cases, various actions against the United States to recover damages, cases from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of International Trade, the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and some administrative agencies. ( The Court originated in the 1982 merger of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the U.S. Court of Claims (although the trial jurisdiction of the Court of Claims was given to a new U.S. Claims Court). - Abbr. Fed. Cir.

circuit court

See COURT.

circuit judge

1. A judge who sits on a circuit court; esp., a federal judge who sits on a U.S. court of appeals. 2. Hist. A special judge added to a court for the purpose of holding trials, but without being a regular member of the court. - Abbr. C.J.

circuit justice

1 A justice who sits on a circuit court. 2. A U.S. Supreme Court justice who has jurisdiction over one or more of the federal circuits, with power to issue injunctions, grant bail, or stay execution in those circuits.

circuit-riding

n. Hist. The practice of judges' traveling within a legislatively defined circuit to hear cases in one place for a time, then another, and so on.

circuit-riding justice

Hist. A U.S. Supreme Court justice who, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, was required to travel within a circuit to preside over trials. ( In each of three circuits that then existed, two justices sat with one district judge. See CIRCUIT-RIDING.3. Hist. Judicial cognizance of causes or offenses; jurisdiction.

circuity of action

A procedure allowing duplicative lawsuits, leading to unnecessarily lengthy and indirect litigation, as when a defendant fails to bring a counterclaim, but later brings a separate action to recover what could have been awarded in the original lawsuit. 0 Civil-procedure rules have eliminated many problems associated with circuity of action."Circuity of action is, when an action is rightfully brought for a duty, but yet about the bush, as it were, for that it might as well have been otherwise answered and determined, and the suit saved: and because the same action was more than needful, it is called circuity of action." Termes de la I.ey 87 (1st Am. ed. 1812).

law of the circuit

1 The law as announced and followed by a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 2. The rule that one panel of judges on a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should not overrule a decision of another panel of judges on the same court. 3. The rule that an opinion of one U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is not binding on another circuit but may be considered persuasive.