Bailiff was the term used by the Normans for what the Saxons had called a reeve: the officer responsible for executing the decisions of a court. The duty of the bailiff would thus include serving summonses and orders and executing all warrants issued out of the corresponding court. The district within which the bailiff operated was called his bailiwick, even to the present day. Bailiffs were outsiders and free men, that is, they were not usually from the bailiwick they were responsible for.
Throughout Norman England, the Saxon and Norman populations gradually mixed, and reeve came to be limited to shire-level courts (hence sheriff as a contraction of “shire-reeve”), while bailiff was used concerning the lower courts. Primarily then, bailiff referred to the officer executing the decisions of manorial courts, and the hundred courts. Likewise, in Scotland, a bailie was the chief officer of a barony (baron bailie), and in the Channel Islands, they were the principal civil officers. With the introduction of Justices of the Peace (magistrates), magistrates’ courts acquired their bailiffs.
Historically, courts were not always concerned with legal matters, and often decided administrative matters for the area within their jurisdiction. A bailiff of a manor, therefore, would often oversee the manor’s lands and buildings, collect its rents, manage its accounts and run its farms.
In the 19th century, the administrative functions of courts were mostly replaced by the creation of elected local authorities (councils). Nevertheless, the term bailiff is retained as a title by the chief officers of various towns and the keepers of royal castles, such as the High Bailiff of Westminster and the Bailiff of Dover Castle.[1] In Scotland, bailie now refers to a municipal officer corresponding to an English alderman.
In the 20th century, the court system was drastically re-organised, with the assize courts taking some of the powers of the shire courts and becoming the high court; in turn, the remaining elements of the shire court took over the powers of the hundred courts, to form County Courts. The High Court acquired the sheriffs, the county court the bailiffs. Bailiffs were now appointed by a county court judge and were removable by the Lord Chancellor
Certificated Enforcement Agents are sometimes arrested for provoking a breach of the peace because the debtor gets upset at the prospect of having his or her goods removed. It should be remembered that a Certificated Enforcement Agent is enforcing a Court Order or Warrant, and the issue of whether the money is properly due will have already been considered by a court or a government official or commercial landlord. A Certificated Enforcement Agent should not be prevented from enforcing just because someone is upset by the activity. There are however circumstances a Certificated Enforcement Agent can behave in a wholly unreasonable way.
Entry without warrant
Bailiff Law (Certificated Enforcement Agents) in England & Wales has been updated by The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 which came in to effect on April 6th 2014.
