Legal Definitions - allocatur

Allocatur refers to a formal permission or allowance granted by a court, often a higher court, for a specific legal action or document to proceed. Historically, it signified that a legal pleading or writ was permitted. In modern legal practice, particularly in certain jurisdictions like Pennsylvania, it specifically denotes the permission required to appeal a case to a higher court. Without an allocatur, the appeal cannot be heard.

• Example 1: Seeking Review by a State's Highest Court
  After losing a complex commercial dispute in the intermediate appellate court of a state (e.g., the Pennsylvania Superior Court), a company believes the appellate court made a significant legal error. They wish to have their case reviewed by the state's highest court (e.g., the Pennsylvania Supreme Court).

  In this scenario, appealing to the highest court is not an automatic right. Instead, the company must petition the Supreme Court for allocatur. This means they are asking the Supreme Court for permission to hear their appeal. If the Supreme Court grants allocatur, it signifies that the court has decided to allow the appeal to proceed and will review the case. If allocatur is denied, the intermediate appellate court's decision stands, and the case concludes.

• Example 2: Permission to File a Specialized Legal Request
  A citizen believes a government agency has unlawfully withheld public records and wants to compel the agency to release them through a specific, rarely used type of legal order known as a "writ of mandamus." The procedural rules for this particular writ in their jurisdiction state that a party must first obtain judicial permission before formally filing the petition for the writ itself.

  In this situation, the court's initial grant of allocatur would be the formal permission allowing the citizen to even file their petition for the writ of mandamus. It's an initial judicial screening to determine if the request has enough merit or meets specific criteria to warrant formal consideration. Without this allocatur, the petition cannot be accepted or processed by the court.