- Ex parte
"Ex parte" is a
Latin legal term meaning "from (by or for) one party" (pronEng|ɛks ˈpɑrteɪ or IPA|/ɛks ˈpɑrti/ in English).An "ex parte" decision is one decided by ajudge without requiring all of the parties to the controversy to be present. In Australian, Canadian, U.K., and U.S.legal doctrine s, "ex parte" means a legal proceeding brought by one person in the absence of and without representation or notification of other parties. It is also used more loosely to refer to improper unilateral contacts with a court, arbitrator or represented party without notice to the other party or counsel for that party.United States
In the United States, the availability of "ex parte" orders or decrees from both federal and state courts is sharply limited by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which provide that a person shall not be deprived of any interest in liberty or property without
due process of law. In practice this has been interpreted to require adequate notice of the request for judicial relief and an opportunity to be heard concerning the merits of such relief. A court order issued on the basis of an "ex parte" proceeding, therefore, will necessarily be temporary and interim in nature, and the person(s) affected by the order must be given an opportunity to contest the appropriateness of the order before it can be made permanent.The phrase has also traditionally been used in the captions of petitions for the
writ ofhabeas corpus , which were (and in some jurisdictions, still are) styled as "Ex parte" Doe", where Doe was the name of the petitioner who was alleged to be wrongfully held. As the Supreme Court's description of nineteenth century practice in "Ex parte Milligan " shows, however, such proceedings were not "ex parte" in any significant sense. The prisoner's "ex parte" application only sought an order requiring the person holding the prisoner to appear before the court to justify the prisoner's detention; no order requiring the freeing of a prisoner could be given until after the jailer was given the opportunity to contest the prisoner's claims at a hearing on the merits.ee also
*"
Ex parte Quirin "
*"Ex parte Milligan "
*Inter partes
*Temporary injunction
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