TRAVERSE

In Law, a name given to a plea containing a denial of some matter of fact alleged on the other side, and offering to refer the matter to the decision of a jury. In cases of misdemeanour, where the defendant postpones the trial of the indictment until the next se ions or a izes, he is said to traverse the indictment. The delays which this form formerly occasioned have been materially abridged by the act GO G. 3. and 1 G.4. c.4.; under which persons in custody or held to bail twenty days before tne se ions are bound to plead, unle a certiorari has been delivered before jury sworn. 12.V1 [s. 1267]