LAS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

LASAuthored

The Law Mind • 565 words

Definition

An archaic term for an inferior bailiff or catchpole — a low-ranking court officer responsible for serving process, making arrests, and collecting debts on behalf of a court or creditor. The term appears primarily in historical English legal usage and is preserved mainly through Jacob's Law Dictionary and sources that drew from it.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of "la," the musical note.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): An obsolete word for "lace," cited to Chaucer.

Neither the modern nor the historical common meaning bears any relationship to the legal term. "Las" in legal usage is a term of office, not a common word with a parallel legal sense. Researchers encountering it in historical legal texts should treat it as pure legal terminology.

Common Confusion

"Las" and "catchpole" are used interchangeably in historical sources, but catchpole survives more robustly in the historical record and is the better search term for most research purposes. The two terms describe the same function — a subordinate process-server or debt-collector operating under court authority — but "las" appears far less frequently and almost exclusively in older secondary sources citing Jacob. Researchers who encounter "las" in a primary source should treat it as a marker of significant antiquity.

Why It Matters in Research

The term is essentially a dead-end in primary sources. It appears in Rapalje & Lawrence as a one-line definition cross-referencing Jacob's Law Dictionary, which is itself a compilation of earlier English legal usage. Researchers are unlikely to encounter "las" as an operative term in case law, statutes, or court records. Its value is diagnostic: finding it in a source suggests the source is either very old or is drawing from very old secondary authority.

The more productive research path runs through "bailiff" and "catchpole," both of which have richer documentation in the historical legal corpus. The functions described by all three terms — process-serving, arrest, debt-collection under court order — are the enduring concepts; "las" is simply one of the least-used labels for the lowest tier of that function.

No jurisdictional evolution to track. The term did not migrate into American law in any meaningful way.

Historical Dictionary Support

Rapalje & Lawrence treat "las" cursorily, offering only the two-word gloss "inferior bailiff, or catchpole" with a citation to Jacob. This reflects the standard practice of the period: preserving obsolete terminology for completeness without representing it as living law. Jacob's Law Dictionary, the original source, was compiled in the early eighteenth century and drew heavily on English medieval legal vocabulary that was already archaic by that time.

No other major historical legal dictionary in the Law Mind corpus — not Bouvier, not Black's, not Burrill — appears to carry an independent entry for "las" as a legal term. Its appearance in Rapalje & Lawrence is likely traceable entirely to the Jacob citation chain. Researchers should not treat the Rapalje & Lawrence entry as evidence of broad usage; it likely represents a single transmitted definition rather than a term encountered across multiple independent sources.

LASmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

An inferior bailiff, or catchpole. Jacob. CACICAZGOS.-In Spanish-American law, property entailed on the caciques, or heads of Indian villages, and their descendants. (Schmidt's Civ. Law 309). -Burrill. CADASTRE, or CADASTU. An official statement of the quantity and value of real property in any district, made for the purpose of justly apportioning the taxes payable on such property. 12 Pet. (U. S.) 428 п. CADERE.-(1) To cease, end, fall, fail, terminate; formerly used in such phrases ascadit actio, the action fails; cadit assisa, the assize abates; cadit breve, the writ fails; cadit quæstio, there is an end of the question; cadit warrantia, the warranty fails. (2) To become, or be changed to, as cadit assisa in juratum, the assize has been changed into a jury. CADET.-(1) A youth under tuition and drill with a view to his becoming an army or navy officer. U. S. Rev. Stat. 1309, 1512. (2) The younger son of a gentleman; particularly applied to a volunteer in the army, wait ing for some post.-Jacob. CADUCA.-In the civil law, (1) An escheat; an inheritance which goes not to the CÆSARIAN.