Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

IN RETENTIS, phr. Sc. Law: used of evidence taken on oath, before a case is heard, from persons who might be unable to attend the court (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 43).Sc. 1773 Erskine Institutes iv. ii. § 31:
If, after an action is commenced, either party apprehend himself in danger of losing the benefit of a witness' testimony, through his old age or some growing infirmity, the court are in use to examine the witness immediately, and ordain his oath to be lodged with the clerk of process, to lie in retentis . . . that it may be considered along with the rest of the proof when the cause comes to be advised by the court.Sc. 1907 Acts 7 Edw. VII. c. 51. § 70:
The evidence of any witness or haver resident beyond the jurisdiction of the court, or who . . . resides at some place remote from the seat of the court, or who is by reason of illness, age, or infirmity, unable to attend the diet of proof, or a jury trial, may be taken by commission in like manner as evidence to lie in retentis.