Original Writ

In English Practice. A mandatory letter issued in the king’s name, sealed with his great seal, and directed to the sheriff of the county wherein the injury was committed or supposed to have been done, requiring him to command the wrongdoer, or party accused, either to do justice to the complainant, or else to appear in court and answer the accusation against him. This writ is deemed necessary to give the courts of law jurisdiction. Andr. Steph. PI.

02; Gould, PI. 14.

This writ is now disused, the writ of summons being the process prescribed by the Uniformity of Process Act for commencing personal actions; and under the Judicature Act, 1873, all suits, even in the court of chancery, are to be commenced by such writs of summons; Brown. But before this, in modem English practice, the original writ was often dispensed with, by recourse to a fiction and a proceeding by bin substituted. In this country, our courts derive their jurisdiction from the constitution, and require no original writ to confer it. Improperly speaking, the first writ which is Issued in a case is sometimes called an original writ; but it is not so in the English sense of the word.

See 3 Bla. Com. 273; Walker, Am. Law, passim.

ORIGIN ALIA (Lat.). In English Law. The transcripts and other documents sent to the office of the treasurer-remembrancer in exchequer are called by this name to distinguish them from rccorda, which contain the judgments of the barons. The treasurer- remembrancer’s office was abolished in 1833.