In law, sua sponte (Latin: "of his, her, its, or their own accord") or suo motu/suo moto ("on its own motion") [1] describes an act of authority taken without formal prompting by another party. [2] The term is usually applied to actions taken by a judge without a prior motion or request from the parties. The form nostra sponte ("of our own accord") is sometimes used when the action is taken by a multi-member court, such as an appellate court, rather than by a single judge. (Third parties describing such actions would still refer to them as being taken by the court as a whole and therefore as sua sponte.) While usually applied to actions of a court, the term may reasonably be applied to actions by government agencies and individuals acting in their official capacities. [3]
One situation in which a party might encourage a judge to move sua sponte occurs when that party is preserving a special appearance (usually to challenge jurisdiction) and therefore cannot make motions on its behalf without making a general appearance. Judges commonly act sua sponte when they determine that the court does not have subject-matter jurisdiction [4] or that the case should be moved to another judge because of a conflict of interest, [5] even if all parties disagree.