According to this statement in the JavaDoc for the release() method: "The implementation must call setCurrentInstance(javax.faces.context.FacesContext) passing null to remove the association between this thread and this dead FacesContext instance." If the call FacesContext.getCurrentInstance() returns null, then the FacesContext for the current thread has been released. With that said, I do believe that it would be reasonable to have a getReleased() method to compliment release() as is true of the getResponseComplete() and getRenderResponse() methods for responseComplete() and renderResponse(). -Dan On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 8:56 AM, Lincoln Baxter, III < lincolnbaxter(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: -- Dan Allen Senior Software Engineer, Red Hat | Author of Seam in Action Registered Linux User #231597 http://mojavelinux.com http://mojavelinux.com/seaminaction http://in.relation.to/Bloggers/Dan