(A) A statement, observation or a remark by a judge on an issue that is not part of the legal reasoning needed to reach the decision in a case. While such dictum may be cited for a legal argument, it is not binding as legal precedent and other courts do not have to accept it as law. These are only thoughts of a judge on what law should be regarding a related issue or matter in the case at bar. (B) practice. Dicta are judicial opinions expressed by the judges on points that do not necessarily arise in the case. 2. Dicta are regarded as of little authority, on account of the manner in which they are delivered; it frequently happening that they are given without much reflection, at the bar, without previous examination. If general dicta in cases turning on special circumstances are to be considered as establishing the law, nothing is yet settled, or can be long settled. What I have said or written, out of the case trying, continues the learned judge, or shall say or write, under such circumstances, maybe taken as my opinion at the time, without argument or full consideration; but I will never consider myself bound by it when the point is fairly trying and fully argued and considered. And I protest against any person considering such obiter dicta as my deliberate opinion. And it was considered by another learned judge. Mr. Baron Richards, to be a great misfortune that dicta are taken down from judges, perhaps incorrectly, and then cited as absolute propositions.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
In general. A statement remark, or observation. Oralis dictum; a gratuitous or voluntary representation; one which a party is not bound to make. 2 Kent, Comm. 486. Simplex dictum; a mere assertion ; an assertion without proof. Bract, fol. 320.
The word is generally used as an abbreviated form of obiter dictum, 44a remark by the way;” that Is, an observation or remark made by a judge in pronouncing an opinion upon a cause, concerning some rule, principle, or application of law, or the solution of a question suggested by the case at bar, but not necessarily Involved in the case or essential to its determination; any statement of the law enunciated by the court merely by way of illustration, argument analogy, or suggestion. See Railroad Co. v. Schutte, 103 U. S. 118,143, 26 L. Ed. 327; In re Woodruff (D. C.) 96 Fed. 317; Hart v. Stribling. 25 Fla. 433, 6 South. 455; Buchner v. Railroad Co., 60 Wis. 264, 19 N. W. 56; Rush v. French, 1 Ariz. 99, 25 Pac. 816; State v. Clarke, 3 Nev. 572.
Dicta are opinions of a judge which do not embody the resolution or determination of the court, and made without argument, or full consideration of the point are not the professed deliberate determinations of the judge himself. Obiter dicta are such opinions uttered by the way, not upon the point or question pending, as if turning aside for the time from the main topic of the case to collateral subjects. Rohrbach v. Insurance Co., 62 N. Y. 47, 58, 20 Am. Rep. 451.
In old English law. Dictum meant an arbitrament or the award of arbitrators.
In French law. The report of a judgment made by one of the judges who has given it Poth. Proc. Civil, pt 1, c. b art 2. Dictum de Kenilworth. The edict or declaration of Kenilworth. An edict or award between King Henry III. and all the barons and others who had been in arms against bim; and so called because it was made at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, in the fifty-first year of his reign, containing a composition or five year rent for the lands and estates of those who had forfeited them in that rebellion. Blount; 2 Reeve, Eng. Law, 62.