Commitment - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition commitment

Definition :

Commitment, (1) the sending a person to prison by warrantor order, either for a crime, contempt, or contumacy [see the (English) Debtors Act, 1869, for the abolition of imprisonment for debt, 32 & 33 Vict. c. 62, s. 5]. In the county Court, judgment debts which the debtor has the means [Re A Debtor, (1905) 1 KB 374] to, but will not pay, can be enforced by commitment for a term not exceeding six weeks. This procedure can be applied to an award under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906 (Bailey v. Plant, 1901 (1) KB 31); see ATTACH-MENT, and R.S.C. Ord. XLIV.; and (2) the sending to prison, pending his trial at Assizes or Quarte, Sessions, by justices of the peace, under the (English) Indictable Offences Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 42), of a person charged with an indictable offence, in a case where the evidence is sufficient.