WRIT OF TRIAL. All trials of causes in the superior courts took place formerly either at bar before the whole court, or at nisi prius before one of the judges of the court, or a judge or serjeant named in the commission of assize ; but now, by the 3 and 4 W. IV., c. 42, s. 17, in any action depending in any of the superior courts for any debt or demand in which the sum sought to be recovered and indorsed on the writ of summons shall not exceed 20/., the court, or a judge (if satisfied that the trial will not involve any difficult question of fact or law), may order the trial to take place before the sheriff of the coanty where the action is brought, or some judge of an inferior court, and for that purpose a writ shall issue (called the Writ of Trial) directed to the sheriff or such judge, commanding him to try the cause before a jury, and to return such writ with the finding of the jury thereon indorsed. The statute
applies only to actions for a debt or de mand indorsed on the writ of summons; it does not therefore extend to cases where the action is brought for a wrong, li or where the demand, being for unliqui dated damages, the amount claimed can not properly be indorsed on the writ of summons. (3 Mann. and Gra. 850.) The proceedings under the writ of trial, when directed to the sheriff, usually take place before his under sheriff or other his de puty; and they are conducted in the same manner as at a trial at nisi prius: and the court will grant a new trial for the same causes as if the trial had been before one of the superior judges ; but a new trial will not be granted upon the ground that the verdict is against the evidence, where the amount of such ver dict is less than Si., unless such verdict be manifestly perverse.