Order vs. Writ — What's the Difference?
By Maham Liaqat & Fiza Rafique — Updated on April 21, 2024
Order is a directive issued by a court or a judge to manage court proceedings or legal conduct, while a writ is a formal legal document issued by a court that commands a specific action.
Difference Between Order and Writ
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
An order is a directive made by a court or a judge during the course of legal proceedings, intended to manage the procedural or substantive aspects of the case. On the other hand, a writ is a formal written order issued by a court or other legal authority, compelling a specific action, such as the performance or cessation of an action.
Orders are generally broader in scope and can include directives such as temporary restraining orders, injunctions, or custody orders, which control behavior or set conditions under the court's jurisdiction. Whereas writs, like writs of habeas corpus or mandamus, specifically command the party to whom they are issued to perform or refrain from performing a particular act.
In terms of issuance, orders are typically produced during the ongoing process of a trial or hearing as part of the judicial proceedings. Conversely, writs are often prerogative or extraordinary remedies, which are issued to enforce a right, correct a lower court's decision, or address an oversight outside the standard appellate procedure.
While orders can be given in both civil and criminal proceedings, affecting the parties involved directly, writs usually have a broader application, sometimes involving public duties and affecting parties beyond the immediate litigants.
Orders can often be modified or appealed within the judicial system based on subsequent motions by the parties involved. In contrast, writs, especially those like certiorari or prohibition, are generally not subject to modification, focusing instead on compliance with their directives.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
A directive issued by a court during legal proceedings.
A formal legal document issued by a court commanding a specific action.
Scope
Can be broad, covering procedural or substantive aspects.
Specific, usually commanding or preventing a specific legal action.
Usage
During trials or hearings in both civil and criminal cases.
To enforce rights, correct errors, or address oversight outside normal procedures.
Modification
Can be modified or appealed within the judicial system.
Typically final and focused on compliance.
Examples
Custody order, injunction, restraining order.
Writ of habeas corpus, mandamus, certiorari.
Compare with Definitions
Order
A directive issued by a court.
The judge issued an order for the evidence to be presented next week.
Writ
A formal legal document commanding a certain act.
A writ of mandamus was issued to compel the public official to act.
Order
A command to manage court proceedings.
The court order to cease all communication between the parties was effective immediately.
Writ
Issued to enforce rights or correct wrongs.
The writ of habeas corpus demanded the prisoner be brought to court to determine the legality of the detention.
Order
Can establish legal relations or change legal status.
The protective order legally prevented him from approaching her.
Writ
May directly involve public officials.
The writ commanded the sheriff to seize the property.
Order
A resolution of a motion or other request.
The order resolving the dispute about property division was filed today.
Writ
Not easily modified or appealed.
The writ of certiorari allowed the Supreme Court to review the lower court's decision.
Order
Often used to enforce or ensure compliance within a case.
The court's order helped streamline the discovery process.
Writ
Issued as a high-level judicial directive.
The writ of prohibition prevented the lower court from exceeding its jurisdiction.
Order
The arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method
I filed the cards in alphabetical order
Writ
In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon gewrit, Latin breve) is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, and subpoenas are common types of writ, but many forms exist and have existed.
Order
An authoritative command or instruction
He was not going to take orders from a mere administrator
The skipper gave the order to abandon ship
Writ
A form of written command in the name of a court or other legal authority to act, or abstain from acting, in a particular way
The two reinstated officers issued a writ for libel against the applicants
An action begun by writ or summons
Order
A particular social, political, or economic system
They were dedicated to overthrowing the established order
Writ
A piece or body of writing.
Order
A society of monks, nuns, or friars living under the same religious, moral, and social regulations and discipline
The Franciscan Order
Writ
Archaic past participle of write
Order
The quality or nature of something
Poetry of the highest order
Writ
(Law) A written order issued by a court, commanding the party to whom it is addressed to perform or cease performing a specified act.
Order
A principal taxonomic category that ranks below class and above family
The higher orders of insects
Writ
Writings
Holy writ.
Order
Any of the five classical styles of architecture (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite) based on the proportions of columns and the style of their decoration.
Writ
A past tense and a past participle of write.
Order
Equipment or uniform for a specified purpose or of a specified type
The platoon changed from drill order into PT kit
Writ
(legal) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
Order
The degree of complexity of an equation, expression, etc., as denoted by an ordinal number.
Writ
Authority, power to enforce compliance.
Order
Give an authoritative instruction to do something
The judge ordered a retrial
She ordered me to leave
‘Stop frowning,’ he ordered
He ordered that the ship be abandoned
Writ
(archaic) That which is written; writing.
Order
Request (something) to be made, supplied, or served
My mate ordered the tickets last week
I asked the security guard to order me a taxi
Are you ready to order, sir?
Writ
(archaic) write
Order
Arrange (something) in a methodical way
Her normally well-ordered life
All entries are ordered by date
Writ
(archaic) write
Order
A condition of logical or comprehensible arrangement among the separate elements of a group.
Writ
That which is written; writing; scripture; - applied especially to the Scriptures, or the books of the Old and New testaments; as, sacred writ.
Then to his hands that writ he did betake,Which he disclosing read, thus as the paper spake.
Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ.
Order
A condition of methodical or prescribed arrangement among component parts such that proper functioning or appearance is achieved
Checked to see that the shipping department was in order.
Writ
An instrument in writing, under seal, in an epistolary form, issued from the proper authority, commanding the performance or nonperformance of some act by the person to whom it is directed; as, a writ of entry, of error, of execution, of injunction, of mandamus, of return, of summons, and the like.
Order
Condition or state in general
The escalator is in good working order.
Writ
(law) a legal document issued by a court or judicial officer
Order
The established system of social organization
"Every revolution exaggerates the evils of the old order" (C. Wright Mills).
Order
A condition in which freedom from disorder or disruption is maintained through respect for established authority
Finally restored order in the rebellious provinces.
Order
A sequence or arrangement of successive things
Changed the order of the files.
Order
The prescribed form or customary procedure, as in a meeting or court of law
The bailiff called the court to order.
Order
An authoritative indication to be obeyed; a command or direction.
Order
A command given by a superior military officer requiring obedience, as in the execution of a task.
Order
Orders Formal written instructions to report for military duty at a specified time and place.
Order
A commission or instruction to buy, sell, or supply something.
Order
That which is supplied, bought, or sold.
Order
A request made by a customer at a restaurant for a portion of food.
Order
The food requested.
Order
(Law) A directive or command of a court.
Order
Any of several grades of the Christian ministry
The order of priesthood.
Order
Often orders The rank of an ordained Christian minister or priest.
Order
Often orders The sacrament or rite of ordination.
Order
Any of the nine grades or choirs of angels.
Order
A group of persons living under a religious rule
Order of Saint Benedict.
Order
An organization of people united by a common fraternal bond or social aim.
Order
A group of people upon whom a government or sovereign has formally conferred honor for unusual service or merit, entitling them to wear a special insignia
The Order of the Garter.
Order
The insignia worn by such people.
Order
Often orders A social class
The lower orders.
Order
A class defined by the common attributes of its members; a kind.
Order
Degree of quality or importance; rank
Poetry of a high order.
Order
Any of several styles of classical architecture characterized by the type of column and entablature employed. Of the five generally accepted classical orders, the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders are Greek and the Tuscan and Composite orders are Roman.
Order
A style of building
A cathedral of the Gothic order.
Order
(Biology) A taxonomic category of organisms ranking above a family and below a class.
Order
The sum of the exponents to which the variables in a term are raised; degree.
Order
An indicated number of successive differentiations to be performed.
Order
The number of elements in a finite group.
Order
The number of rows or columns in a determinant or matrix.
Order
To issue a command or instruction to
Ordered the sailors to stow their gear.
Order
To direct to proceed as specified
Ordered the intruders off the property.
Order
To give a command or instruction for
The judge ordered a recount of the ballots.
Order
To request to be supplied with
Order eggs and bacon for breakfast.
Order
To put into a methodical, systematic arrangement
Ordered the books on the shelf.
Order
To predestine; ordain.
Order
To give an order or orders; request that something be done or supplied.
Order
(countable) Arrangement, disposition, or sequence.
Put the children in age order
It's arranged in order of frequency
Order
(countable) A position in an arrangement, disposition, or sequence.
Order
(uncountable) The state of being well arranged.
The house is in order; the machinery is out of order.
Order
(countable) Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet.
To preserve order in a community or an assembly
Order in the court!
Order
(countable) A command.
Give an order
His inability to follow orders
Order
(countable) A request for some product or service; a commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods.
Make an order
Receive an online order for the new range of sunglasses
Order
(countable) A group of religious adherents, especially monks or nuns, set apart within their religion by adherence to a particular rule or set of principles.
St. Ignatius Loyola founded the Jesuit order in 1537.
Order
(countable) An association of knights.
The Order of the Garter, the Order of the Bath.
Order
Any group of people with common interests.
Order
(countable) A decoration, awarded by a government, a dynastic house, or a religious body to an individual, usually for distinguished service to a nation or to humanity.
Order
A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below class and above family; a taxon at that rank.
The magnolia and nutmeg families belong to the order Magnoliales.
Order
A number of things or persons arranged in a fixed or suitable place, or relative position; a rank; a row; a grade; especially, a rank or class in society; a distinct character, kind, or sort.
The higher or lower orders of society
Talent of a high order
Order
(Christianity) An ecclesiastical rank or position, usually for the sake of ministry, when plural holy orders.
There have been many major and minor orders in the history of Christianity: the order of virgins, of deacons, priests, lectors, acolytes, porters, catechists, widows, etc.
To take orders or holy orders means to be ordained a deacon or priest
Order
(architecture) The disposition of a column and its component parts, and of the entablature resting upon it, in classical architecture; hence (since the column and entablature are the characteristic features of classical architecture) a style or manner of architectural design.
Order
(cricket) The sequence in which a side’s batsmen bat; the batting order.
Order
(electronics) A power of polynomial function in an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc.
A 3-stage cascade of a 2nd-order bandpass Butterworth filter
Order
(chemistry) The overall power of the rate law of a chemical reaction, expressed as a polynomial function of concentrations of reactants and products.
Order
(set theory) The cardinality, or number of elements in a set, group, or other structure regardable as a set.
Order
For given group G and element g ∈ G, the smallest positive natural number n, if it exists, such that (using multiplicative notation), gn = e, where e is the identity element of G; if no such number exists, the element is said to be of infinite order (or sometimes zero order).
Order
(graph theory) The number of vertices in a graph.
Order
(order theory) A partially ordered set.
Order
(order theory) The relation on a partially ordered set that determines that it is, in fact, a partially ordered set.
Order
(algebra) The sum of the exponents on the variables in a monomial, or the highest such among all monomials in a polynomial.
A quadratic polynomial, is said to be of order (or degree) 2.
Order
(finance) A written direction to furnish someone with money or property; compare money order, postal order.
Order
(transitive) To set in some sort of order.
We need to order them alphabetically.
Order
(transitive) To arrange, set in proper order.
The books in the shelf need ordering.
Order
(transitive) To issue a command to.
To order troops to advance
He ordered me to leave.
I hate being ordered around by my co-workers.
Order
(transitive) To request some product or service; to secure by placing an order.
You can now order most products to be delivered to your home.
To order groceries
To order food from a restaurant
Order
To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.
Order
Regular arrangement; any methodical or established succession or harmonious relation; method; system
The side chambers were . . . thirty in order.
Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable.
Good order is the foundation of all good things.
Order
Right arrangement; a normal, correct, or fit condition; as, the house is in order; the machinery is out of order.
Order
The customary mode of procedure; established system, as in the conduct of debates or the transaction of business; usage; custom; fashion.
And, pregnant with his grander thought,Brought the old order into doubt.
Order
Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet; as, to preserve order in a community or an assembly.
Order
That which prescribes a method of procedure; a rule or regulation made by competent authority; as, the rules and orders of the senate.
The church hath authority to establish that for an order at one time which at another time it may abolish.
Order
A command; a mandate; a precept; a direction.
Upon this new fright, an order was made by both houses for disarming all the papists in England.
Order
Hence: A commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods; a direction, in writing, to pay money, to furnish supplies, to admit to a building, a place of entertainment, or the like; as, orders for blankets are large.
In those days were pit orders - beshrew the uncomfortable manager who abolished them.
Order
A number of things or persons arranged in a fixed or suitable place, or relative position; a rank; a row; a grade; especially, a rank or class in society; a group or division of men in the same social or other position; also, a distinct character, kind, or sort; as, the higher or lower orders of society; talent of a high order.
They are in equal order to their several ends.
Various orders various ensigns bear.
Which, to his order of mind, must have seemed little short of crime.
Order
A body of persons having some common honorary distinction or rule of obligation; esp., a body of religious persons or aggregate of convents living under a common rule; as, the Order of the Bath; the Franciscan order.
Find a barefoot brother out,One of our order, to associate me.
The venerable order of the Knights Templars.
Order
An ecclesiastical grade or rank, as of deacon, priest, or bishop; the office of the Christian ministry; - often used in the plural; as, to take orders, or to take holy orders, that is, to enter some grade of the ministry.
Order
The disposition of a column and its component parts, and of the entablature resting upon it, in classical architecture; hence (as the column and entablature are the characteristic features of classical architecture) a style or manner of architectural designing.
Order
An assemblage of genera having certain important characters in common; as, the Carnivora and Insectivora are orders of Mammalia.
Order
The placing of words and members in a sentence in such a manner as to contribute to force and beauty or clearness of expression.
Order
Rank; degree; thus, the order of a curve or surface is the same as the degree of its equation.
Whiles I take order for mine own affairs.
Order
To put in order; to reduce to a methodical arrangement; to arrange in a series, or with reference to an end. Hence, to regulate; to dispose; to direct; to rule.
To him that ordereth his conversation aright.
Warriors old with ordered spear and shield.
Order
To give an order to; to command; as, to order troops to advance.
Order
To give an order for; to secure by an order; as, to order a carriage; to order groceries.
Order
To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.
These ordered folk be especially titled to God.
Persons presented to be ordered deacons.
Order
To give orders; to issue commands.
Order
(often plural) a command given by a superior (e.g., a military or law enforcement officer) that must be obeyed;
The British ships dropped anchor and waited for orders from London
Order
A degree in a continuum of size or quantity;
It was on the order of a mile
An explosion of a low order of magnitude
Order
Established customary state (especially of society);
Order ruled in the streets
Law and order
Order
Logical or comprehensible arrangement of separate elements;
We shall consider these questions in the inverse order of their presentation
Order
A condition of regular or proper arrangement;
He put his desk in order
The machine is now in working order
Order
A legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge);
A friend in New Mexico said that the order caused no trouble out there
Order
A commercial document used to request someone to supply something in return for payment and providing specifications and quantities;
IBM received an order for a hundred computers
Order
A formal association of people with similar interests;
He joined a golf club
They formed a small lunch society
Men from the fraternal order will staff the soup kitchen today
Order
A body of rules followed by an assembly
Order
(usually plural) the status or rank or office of a Christian clergyman in an ecclesiastical hierarchy;
Theologians still disagree over whether `bishop' should or should not be a separate order
Order
A group of person living under a religious rule;
The order of Saint Benedict
Order
(biology) taxonomic group containing one or more families
Order
A request for food or refreshment (as served in a restaurant or bar etc.);
I gave the waiter my order
Order
(architecture) one of original three styles of Greek architecture distinguished by the type of column and entablature used or a style developed from the original three by the Romans
Order
Putting in order;
There were mistakes in the ordering of items on the list
Order
Give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority;
I said to him to go home
She ordered him to do the shopping
The mother told the child to get dressed
Order
Make a request for something;
Order me some flowers
Order a work stoppage
Order
Issue commands or orders for
Order
Bring into conformity with rules or principles or usage; impose regulations;
We cannot regulate the way people dress
This town likes to regulate
Order
Bring order to or into;
Order these files
Order
Place in a certain order;
Order these files
Order
Appoint to a clerical posts;
He was ordained in the Church
Order
Arrange thoughts, ideas, temporal events, etc.;
Arrange my schedule
Set up one's life
I put these memories with those of bygone times
Order
Assign a rank or rating to;
How would you rank these students?
The restaurant is rated highly in the food guide
Common Curiosities
Can orders and writs be appealed?
Orders can often be modified or appealed; writs usually focus on compliance and are less commonly changed.
Who can issue an order?
Any judge or court involved in a legal proceeding can issue an order.
What are some common types of orders?
Common types include restraining orders, injunctions, and custody orders.
What are examples of writs?
Examples include writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, and certiorari.
What is an order?
An order is a court directive aimed at managing legal procedures or conduct during a case.
How does an order influence a legal case?
Orders manage the conduct of parties and proceedings, impacting the flow and decisions in a case.
How does an order differ from a writ in legal proceedings?
An order is part of ongoing court management, while a writ typically addresses more specific actions outside regular proceedings.
Are writs applicable only in criminal cases?
Writs can be issued in both criminal and civil contexts, often involving public duties.
Who can issue a writ?
Writs are usually issued by higher courts such as appellate or supreme courts.
What is a writ?
A writ is a formal legal document that commands or prohibits specific actions, issued by a court.
How does a writ influence a legal case?
Writs can significantly alter the direction of a case, especially by correcting errors or enforcing legal rights.
Is an order more common than a writ?
Orders are more common as they are part of regular judicial proceedings, whereas writs are more specific and less frequently issued.
What happens if someone disobeys an order?
Disobeying a court order can lead to penalties like fines or jail time.
What happens if someone disobeys a writ?
Non-compliance with a writ can also lead to serious legal consequences, including contempt of court.
Can a writ be issued for any legal matter?
Writs are generally reserved for specific needs, such as enforcement of rights or correcting judicial errors.
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Written by
Maham Liaqat
Co-written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
