sheriff's court

noun

1

English law : a court held by a sheriff or an undersheriff with a jury and authorized to assess damages in undefended and in compulsory taking-of-land cases, to find the value of defendants' lands taken on executions, and formerly to try other issues of fact sent to it by courts of superior jurisdiction

2

Scots law : a court presided over by a sheriff depute or a sheriff substitute trained in law that is the ordinary and the small debt court and a criminal court and since 1913 has jurisdiction in practically all civil actions with the principal exceptions of actions involving the status of marriage, divorce, or legitimacy, reductions, winding-up of companies where paid-up capital exceeds £10,000, and actions to prove the text of lost documents but cannot sentence to more than two years' imprisonment

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