Legal Definitions - adjournment

An adjournment is the act of postponing or suspending a meeting, hearing, or session to a future date or time. It represents a temporary pause in proceedings, with the expectation that they will resume.

There are also specific types of adjournments:

• Adjournment sine die (pronounced "SEE-nay DEE-ay") means to adjourn "without day." This occurs when a meeting, court session, or legislative body concludes its proceedings without setting a specific date or time to reconvene. It often signifies the final end of a session or the dissolution of the body.

• A conditional adjournment is when a body adjourns without setting a fixed date for reconvening, but establishes specific conditions or triggers under which it will reconvene.

Examples:

• General Adjournment (Court Proceeding): During a complex criminal trial, the judge announces at the end of the day, "This court is adjourned until 9:00 AM tomorrow morning."

  Explanation: This is a standard adjournment. The trial is temporarily paused and will resume at a specific, scheduled time the next day, allowing all parties to prepare for the continuation of the proceedings.

• Adjournment Sine Die (Legislative Session): After successfully passing all necessary legislation and the annual budget, the Speaker of the House in a state legislature declares, "The current legislative session is hereby adjourned sine die."

  Explanation: This signifies the permanent conclusion of the current legislative session. The legislature will not reconvene until the next constitutionally mandated session, or unless a special session is called, without a specific future date set for *this* session to resume.

• Conditional Adjournment (Corporate Board Meeting): A company's Board of Directors is discussing a major acquisition but realizes they need to review an updated financial analysis report that is not yet complete. The Board decides to adjourn, stating, "This meeting is conditionally adjourned, to reconvene within 24 hours of the Chief Financial Officer distributing the final updated financial analysis."

  Explanation: The meeting is paused without a fixed date. Its resumption is dependent on a specific condition being met (the distribution of the report), rather than a pre-set calendar date.