bailiff
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GC: n

S: GOV.UK – https://www.gov.uk/your-rights-bailiffs (last access: 11 January 2025); LII – https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/bailiff (last access: 11 January 2025).

N: 1. Middle English baillif, bailie, from Anglo-French baillif, from bail power, authority, office, from baillier to govern, administer, from Medieval Latin bajulare to care for, support, from Latin, to carry a burden.

  • First Known Use: 14th century.
  • An official employed by a British sheriff to serve writs and make arrests and executions
  • A minor officer of some U.S. courts usually serving as a messenger or usher
  • Chiefly British :one who manages an estate or farm.

2. bailiff, also known as: bailli.

  • bailiff, a minor court official with police authority to protect the court while in session and with power to serve and execute legal process. In earlier times it was a title of more dignity and power.
  • In medieval England there were bailiffs who served the lord of the manor, while others served the hundred courts and the sheriff. The bailiffs of manors were, in effect, superintendents; they collected fines and rents, served as accountants, and were, in general, in charge of the land and buildings on the estate. Bailiffs who served the hundred courts were appointed by the sheriff; they assisted judges at assizes (sessions of the royal court held twice a year in each shire), acted as process servers and executors of writs, assembled juries, and collected fines in court.

  • In France the bailli had much greater power; from the 13th to the 15th century they were the principal agents of the king and his growing central administration for countering feudalism. The bailli was part of this central administration, appointed by the king and required to give account to him, and stood between a prévôt and the central royal court. In the south, sénéchaux, who had originally been feudal officers of the crown, assumed the same functions as the baillis. The position of a grand bailli in a district was equal to that of the English sheriff.

    Like the prévôts, the baillis represented the king in many kinds of business.

3. Occupation Names (General); Courts : bailiff.

  • A person employed by the sheriff to serve writs and to make arrests and executions of court orders.
  • bailiff: common-law sense. The term “bailiff” has a slightly different meaning in common-law and civil-law jurisdictions, although the bailiff performs similar functions in both systems. In Quebec civil law, bailiffs are independent from sheriffs and are public officers, which means, for example, that they have the power conferred by the State to authenticate or certify documents.

4. Occupation Names (General); Courts : bailiff, court bailiff.

  • The practice of the profession of bailiff consists of any act the object of which is to serve written proceedings issuing out of any court, to execute judicial decisions that are executory and to perform any other duty assigned to a bailiff by law or by a court.
  • bailiff: civil-law sense. The term “bailiff” has a slightly different meaning in civil-law and common-law jurisdictions, although the bailiff performs similar functions in both systems. In Quebec civil law, bailiffs (or court bailiffs) are public officers, meaning that they have the power conferred by the State to authenticate and certify documents; their certificate of service and minutes of seizure are authentic writings. In common-law jurisdictions, there is no such concept and the bailiff is a sheriff’s officer.

5. Occupation Names (General); Legal Profession: Organization; Courts: bailiff.

  • A low-level court official or sheriff’s deputy whose duty is to preserve and protect orderly conduct in court proceedings.
  • Bailiff. An individual who is entrusted with some authority, care, guardianship, or jurisdiction over designated persons or property. One who acts in a managerial or ministerial capacity or takes care of land, goods, and chattels of another in order to make the best profit for the owner.
  • In the National Occupational Classification (NOC), an official occupational title in Group 6461 – Sheriffs and Bailiffs.

6. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention Battling Bailiff from Night Court (TV series 1984-1992).

S: 1. MW – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bailiff (last access: 24 October 2017). 3. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/topic/bailiff (last access: 11 January 2025). 3 to 5. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=bailiff&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 11 January 2025). 6. IMDb – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0660588/ (last access: 11 January 2025).

SYN: enforcement agent

S: GOV.UK – https://www.gov.uk/your-rights-bailiffs (last access: 11 January 2025)

CR: court clerk, judge.