Certiorari

Definition

A word from Law Latin, meaning "to be more fully informed." If an appellate court has the power to review cases at its discretion, certioari is the formal instrument by which that power gets used. A writ of certiorari orders a lower court to deliver its record in a case so that the higher court may review it. The U.S. Supreme Court uses certiorari to pick most of the cases that it hears.