RECOGNIZANCE, rt,-kiif.."111-zans- or ri1.-kon'i zans ( :\ 1 L. rceognosecntia, from l.at. recognoscere, to know again). An obligation entered into by a person with a court of record, whereby he hinds himself under a penalty to do or not to do a particular thing required of him by the court, and which is made a part of the record. Re eognizanees differ hut little in form from ordi nary bonds. except that they need not be executed with the same formality, as they are entered into before the court, and that they are commonly given by persons under a criminal charge. In many jurisdictions recognizanees need not be signed by the person binding himself, as the simple fact of his assent being made a part of the record by order of the court is considered suf ficient.
Reeognizances are commonly given by prisoners accused of trivial crimes to secure their tem porary release, or even permanent release on probation, and, as the name indicates, they contain or imply a recognition or acknowledgment of the offense. The most frequent conditions are
that the 'recognitor' keep the peace, or appear at some adjourned hearing of his ease. In such a ease the prisoner is said to be discharged 'on his own recognizance.' differ from bail bonds in that the latter are usually required to be executed by sureties who can qualify as owning real es tate of a certain value. A further distinction is that a recognizance is usually considered as a sort of conditional judgment, and on the default of the recognitor a scire facias, or order to show cause, issues to him, requiring him to show good reason why execution should not issue against him immediately for the amount named in the recognizance. In many of the United States bail bonds have entirely superseded recognizances. See BAIL; BOND.