The Court. In this case, the plead is an answer to the question 'are
you guilty or not guilty' of the offense? Having answered the
question, it becomes clear to all that a trial of some kind is (or
not) needed. At various times, the judge in charge (or the presiding
judge who assigned the judge in charge, or the court clerk under
standing authority from one or the other, establishes due dates for
this or that sort of pleading. There is a calendar of such due dates
associated with each case, and it governs what's supposed to be turned
in and to whom and when.
The reason the term 'plea' is used (and all the verb forms associated)
is legal history. In this case, going back to the King's Courts in
England, starting in the Middle Ages (around 1200's IIRC). At that
time, Latin was often used in papers filed in court (also called
pleadings, as in "Your Worship, I faxed our pleading on this question
to the Baliff [anachronistically] yesterday. It's Canon's fault that
it didn't arrive as I use a Canon FAX machine and it seems to have
malfunctioned". The legal equivalent of the dog ate my homework,
surely. Not too long later, French (in the Norman variant) was used
for written pleas, though it's thought that English of some kind was
actually used in oral argument rather early on, say within 100 years
or so.
Does that help? |
