contracts. An obligation of record entered into before a court or officer duly authorized for that purpose, with a condition to do some act required by law, which is therein specified. 2 Bl. Com. 341; Bro. Ab. h. t.; Dick. Just. h. t.; 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 90. 2. Recognizances relate either to criminal or civil matters. 1. Recognizances in criminal cases, are either that the party shall appear before the proper court to answer to such charges as are or shall be made against him, that he shall keep the peace or be of good behaviour. Witnesses are also required to be bound in a recognizance to testify. 3. 2. In civil cases, recognizances are entered into by bail, conditioned that they will pay the debt, interest and costs recovered by the plaintiff under certain contingencies. There are also cases where recognizances are entered into under the authority and requirements of statutes. 4. As to the form. The party need not sign it; the court, judge or magistrate having authority to take the same, makes a short memorandum on the record, which is sufficient.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
An obligation of record, entered Into before some court of record, or magistrate duly authorized, with condition to do some particular act; aa to appear at the assizes, or criminal court, to keep the peace, to pay a debt or the like. It resembles a bond, but differs from it in being an acknowledgment of a former debt upon record.
In criminal law, a person who has been found guilty of an offense may, in certain cases, be required to enter into a recognizance by which he binds himself to keep the peace for a certain period Sweet. In the practice of several of the states, a recognizance is a species of bail-bond or security, given by the prisoner either on being bound over for trial or on his taking an appeal.