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The Sheriff's Part in Debt Collection
By T. G. CROTTY, County Registrar, Kilkenny
The office of "shire-reeve" dates back to Norman
times. He was chief officer of the Crown in each county.
Incidentally, as such, he still takes precedence over
every other person in the county, and in cities takes
second place only to the Mayor. On formal occasions,
his proper dress is "court dress".
Interestingly, like his colleague in the American
West, the Sheriff has the right—which may amount to
a duty—to call out the posse—(posse comitatus = the
power of the county). Originally this was a power to
summon all good men and true to horse, to ride out
and assist the sheriff in the execution of his duty. To-
day, the power of the county lies in the police force.
When the sheriff nowadays requires a protection escort
the requisition he sends to the Garda Superintendent is
still known as a "Posse Notice."
The execution of the orders of the King's Courts
was always one of the primary functions of the sheriff.
Originally this covered criminal as well as civil orders
—f or example the pursuit of outlaws, the execution of
sentence of death, etc. However, these powers were
gradually eroded following on the establishment of
regular police forces, culminating in the abolition of
the powers of arrest, attachment and committal by the
Enforcement of Court Orders Act, 1926 and the vesting
of these and all other executive powers of a criminal
nature in the Garda Siochana. All that is now left is
the enforcement of civil orders, i.e. money judgment,
orders for possession and the like.
Another effect of the Court Officers Acts was to
abolish the former distinction between high sheriffs, and
under-sheriffs, and apart from the special cases of
Dublin and Cork, to transfer the duties, obligations,
rights and privileges of the former sheriffs, as they died
off or retired, to the County Registrars. They are
whole-time court officers, primarily responsible to the
Courts they serve as registrars, but carried on the
staff of the Department of Justice for purposes of
pay and establishment. Presumably it was felt that in
Dublin and Cork the combined work-load would be
too much for one man, so separate sheriffs have been
retained there; these are part-time officers with a small
retaining salary, who derive their income mainly from
the poundage and fees they charge on the execution of
court orders.
U p to about 10 or 12 years ago, the County Registrar
was separately remunerated for his sheriff duties by an
allowance which was apart from his general salary;
these allowances averaged about 10% of his salary and
county registrars naturally inclined to treat their sheriff
responsibilities in a like proportion—i.e. as calling
for not more than 10% of their time and energies!
Although these allowances have since been consolidated
and the amounts were not increased, consequently. The
attitude tends to persist.
Let us suppose you, as solioitor, have obtained
judgment on behalf of a client for the payment of a
debt, and there is no stay of execution or provision for
payment by instalments. You then take out a decree
(District Court) or an Execution Order (Circuit Court)
or a Writ of Fieri Faccas, commonly called Fi. Fa.
(High Court) and lodge it in the Sheriff's Office for the
county where the Defendant resides or carries on
Business. Each County Registrar still maintains a
separate branch, usually with its own staff and quarters,
which is still known as the Sheriff's Office. On lodging
you are charged a nominal fee, depending on the
amount of the judgment—the maximum is 35p. A note
of the orders is then entered in the sheriff's "Execution
Book" and takes priority according to the order of
entry. An alphabetical index to this book is kept in the
order of debtors' surnames.
Let us refer to all such court orders by the general
term of "Decree". It directs the Sheriff to levy the
amount due for debt and costs by seizure and sale of
the debtor's goods. On the face of it, it contemplates
no other intermediate steps and in theory the sheriff
ould be justified to seeking out his Court Messenger
(formerly known as bailiff) forthwith, with a van or
truck and order him to take possession of enough of
the debtors goods to satisfy the decree.
In practice, of course, this does not happen.
Times have changed and the present day sheriffs are
not the domineering minions of the Crown and the
Landlord class that they were in the past. In any event
social thinking today would not tolerate such brute
force being exercised without good warning. So the
the Sheriff sends out formal notice that the decree has
been lodged and demanding payment, threatening
seizure in default. Several such notices may be sent out,
and if there is no response the Court Messenger will
usually be directed to make a warning call, trying at
the same time to find out why the debtor is not paying,
and whether he can afford to, and also trying to
ascertain what goods he has that could be seized. In
my experience, this process succeeds in extracting pay-
ment in well over 50% in all cases without need for
any more drastic action.
Sometimes, of course, the debtor asks for time
to pay or makes an offer of weekly or monthly instal-
ment, or disputes the liability altogether. Here is where
the Sheriff's local knowledge and that of his Court
Messenger come into play—they must judge whether
or not to take such approaches at their face value or
not. If the sheriff thinks they are genuine, he will tele-
phone or write to the solicitor who lodged the Decree,
informing him of the debtor's attitude and usually
adding his own comments as to whether or not he
thinks an offer should be accepted or a disputed
liability is genuine—and he will then await the
creditor's instructions before taking any further action.
Sometimes, if the delay is not unreasonable, or
the instalments offered are big enough to clear off the
debt in a fairly short time, the Sheriff, realising that
easiest ways are best, will accept the offer off his own
bat without seeking instructions. Normally, however,
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