Word of the Day

: February 3, 2015

ex parte

adverb or adjective eks-PAR-tee

What It Means

1 : on or from one side or party only - used of legal proceedings

2 : from a one-sided or partisan point of view

ex parte in Context

"The record of the case was of vast length and full of technicalities, it was discussed ex parte by vehement propagandists on both sides…." - Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's, 1931

"In the U.S., lawyers are forbidden to meet with a judge 'ex parte,' or outside the presence of opposing counsel." - Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker, January 9, 2012

Did You Know?

"Latin has not been over-used in a procedural context ('ex parte' being a rare exception)," wrote a correspondent to The London Times in May 1999. Indeed, ex parte (which literally meant "on behalf [of]" in Medieval Latin) pops up quite often in legal settings. Even when ex parte steps outside of the courtroom-to be used of an ex parte meeting, interview, chat, conversation, investigation, discussion, or contact, for example-the "one-sided" sense often has some sort of legal or legislative slant referring to involvement of just one party or side in a case or dispute.