A latitat is a legal device, namely a
writ, that is "based upon the presumption that the person summoned was hiding", see
Blackstone. The word "latitat" is
Latin for "he lurks".
[" derives its name from a supposition that the defendant lurks and lies hid, and cannot be found in the county of Middlesex (in which the said court is holden) to be taken there, but is gone into some other county, and therefore requiring the sheriff to apprehend him in such other county." Fitz. N. B. 78.]
In
England, the writ is essentially a summons out of the
civil
Civil may refer to:
*Civic virtue, or civility
*Civil action, or lawsuit
* Civil affairs
*Civil and political rights
*Civil disobedience
*Civil engineering
*Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism
*Civilian, someone not a membe ...
, and in those days,
common law-only court,
King's Bench
The King's Bench (), or, during the reign of a female monarch, the Queen's Bench ('), refers to several contemporary and historical courts in some Commonwealth jurisdictions.
* Court of King's Bench (England), a historic court court of commo ...
. It is now defunct, but examples still exist from 1579 and 1791. One example from the 16th century was a writ presented to the
Star Chamber
The Star Chamber (Latin: ''Camera stellata'') was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judic ...
, a powerful court operating outside the normal system of law. In that example, the Court of King's Bench had issued a writ of latitat directing the King's
Sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
to arrest the named person and present them before the court at a specified time and place. The matter had come before the Star Chamber because the
arrest
An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be questi ...
had been resisted and the
Under-Sheriff (a
Crown official) assaulted and a writ of
subpoena was now requested. The writ may have arisen in 1566 because at that time there was a "Bill for Latitat for Vexation out of the King's Bench" before
Parliament and there was another in 1802.
The current practice would be for the issue of a subpoena. If the person concerned failed to appear, the
High Court of England and Wales has the power to issue a
Bench Warrant, i.e. a
warrant for the arrest of the person concerned, who may then be subject to arrest under that aegis of
the Tipstaff and presentation before the court for
contempt of court
Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
.
References
External links
Website with text of a Writ of Latitat described above:
* http://www.glenister.org/items/glenstar.asp
Writs
Common law
Legal history of England
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