Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
In American law. The chief executive and administrative officer of a county, being chosen by popular election. His principal duties are In aid of the criminal courts and civil courts of record; such as serving process, summoning juries, executing judgments, holding judicial sales, and the like. He is also the chief conservator of the peace within his territorial jurisdiction. The sheriff is the principal officer In every county, and has the transacting of the public business of the county. He is an officer of great antiquity, and was also called the “shire reeve,” “reeve,” or “bailiff.” He is called in Latin “vice comes,” as being the deputy of the earl or comes, to whom anciently the custody of the shire was committed. The duties of the sheriff principally consist in executing writs, precepts, warrants from justices of the peace for the apprehension of offenders, etc. Brown. In Scotch law. The office of sheriff differs somewhat from the same office under the English law, being, from ancient times, an office of important judicial power, as well as ministerial. The sheriff exercises a jurisdiction of considerable extent, both of civil and criminal character, which is, in a proper sense, judicial, in addition to powers resembling those of an English sheriff. Tomlins; Bell. Deputy sheriff. See Deputy. High sheriff. One holding the office of sheriff, as distinguished from his deputies or assistants or under sheriffs. Pocket sheriff. In English law. A sheriff appointed by the sole authority of the crown, without the usual form of nomination by the judges in the exchequer. Sheriff clerk. The clerk of the sheriff’s court in Scotland. Sheriff depute. In Scotch law. The principal sheriff of a county, who is also a judge. Sheriff geld. A rent formerly paid by a sheriff, and it is prayed that the sheriff in his account may be discharged thereof. Rot. Pari. SO Edw. III. Sheriff tooth. In English law. A tenure by the service of providing entertainment for the sheriff at his county courts; a common tax, formerly levied for the sheriff’s diet. Wharton. Sheriff’s court. The court held before the sheriff’s deputy, that is, the under sheriff, and wherein actions are brought for recovery of debts under