Legal Term: WRIT OF PROCESS,

Definition: Engl. law, pradice. 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.

2. 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. 4 Bl. Com. 282. See further, as to the nature of those writs, 1 Tidds Pr. 106-193, 4th edit., 1 Sellons Pr. 64-102.

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