Practice

Thie course of a business; customs of an office; routine of performing duties or exercising functions; hence, particularly, the form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits or prosecutions in the courts through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the respective courts. Bouvier; Burrill; Wharton. It may include pleading; but is usually employed as excluding both pleading and evidence, and to designate all the incidental acts and steps in the course of bringing matters pleaded to trial and proof, and procuring and enforcing judgment on them. Practice is the procedure in a, court of justice, through the various stages of any matter, civil or criminal, depending before it. Rules of pleading are distinguished from rules of practice, in that the former tell what is the most efficient form to adopt in shaping the pleadings; the latter tell in what manner the pleadings should be brought under the notice of the court, and what steps should be taken to obtain the benefit of them.

Hunt Eq. (Qth. ei.) 2,Z. And see ^AUen v. Sraillie, 1 Abb. Pr. 354.

Practice court

The name of a court attached to the court of king's (or queen's) bench, and presided over by one of the judges of that court, for the decision of points of practice and pleading. After the appointment of an additional judge to the court, under the authority of Stat. 11 Geo. IV. & 1 Wm. lY. ch. 70, § 11, which took place in Michaelmas term, 1830, Lord Tenterden, then the lord chief justice, informed the bar that, in addition to the powers already exercised by one judge, sitting apart from the others, in the bail court (or court in which the sufi Sciency of parties as bail, and other minor matters, are ascertained), all matters of practice would, for the future, be determined there. It thereafter became usual to move in this court, in certain cases, for new trials, and, in ordinary cases, for writs of mandamus and of prohibition, in addition to mere points of practice. If any doubt arises in the mind of the presiding judge as to any question brought before him, he refers the party to the full court, before which indeed cause, on rules nisi, is generally shown; but the preside for the spao; of a terra. This court though frequently and properly termed the "practice court of the queen's bench," is now generally called, from its origin, the bail court.

Brawn.