WRIT OF PROCESS - Engl. law. If
the defendant does not appear, in obedience to the
original writ, there issue, when the time for appearance
is past, other writs, returnable on some general return
day in the term, called writs of process, enforcing
the appearance of the defendant, either by attachment,
or distress of his property, or arrest of his person,
according to the nature of the case.
These differ from the original writ in the following
particulars; they issue not out of chancery, but out
of the court of common law, into which the original
writ is returnable; and, accordingly, are not under
the great seal, but the private seal of the court;
and they bear teste in the named of the chief justice
of that court, and not in the name of the king himself.
It may also be observed, that in common with all other
writs issuing from the court of common law, during
the progress of the suit, they are described as judicial
writs, by way of distinction from the original one
obtained from the chancery.
WRIT OF PROCLAMATION - Engl. practice.
A writ which issues, at the same time with the exigi
facias by which the sheriff is commanded to make proclamations
in the statute prescribed.
When it is not directed to the same sheriff as the
writ of exigi facias is, it is called a foreign writ
of proclamation.
