Noun
summary proceedings pl (plural only)
(law) Certain statutory remedies taken without the formal bringing of an action by process and pleading.
It is necessary for Courts of Justice to hold a strict hand over summary proceedings before magistrates, and I never will agree to relax any of the rules by which they have been bound. Their jurisdiction is of a limited nature, and they must shew that the party was brought within it. Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon