ATTAINT, WRIT OF, an obsolete method of procedure in English law, for inquiring by a jury of 24 whether a false ver dict had been given in a trial before an ordinary jury of 12. It originated in the days when jurors were regarded as witnesses as well as judges and a false verdict was regarded as perjury. If it were found that an erroneous judgment had been given, the wrong was redressed and the original jury incurred infamy, with im prisonment and forfeiture of their goods, which punishments were, however, commuted later for a pecuniary penalty. In criminal cases a writ of attaint was issued at suit of the king, and in civil cases at the suit of either party. In criminal cases it appears to have become obsolete by the end of the 15th century, although juries were sometimes fined by the Star Chamber for acquittal. Procedure by attaint in civil cases had also been gradually giving place to the practice of granting new trials, and after the decision in Bushell's case in 1670 (see JURY) it became obsolete, and was finally abolished by the Juries Act 1825, except as regards jurors guilty of embracery (q.v.).