Estreat (French estrait, Latin extracta) means, originally, a true copy or duplicate of some original writing or record; since the 1900s used only with reference to the enforcement of a forfeited recognizance. At one time it was the practice to extract and certify into the exchequer copies of entries in court rolls which contained provision or orders in favor of the treasury, hence the estreating of a recognizance was the taking out from among the other records of the court in which it was filed and sending it to the exchequer to be enforced, or sending it to the sheriff to he levied by him, and then returned by the clerk of the peace to the lords of the treasury.

Estreature is the noun form of the verb estreat. In current usage in the United States usage it means the action and change of status involved in converting a surety bond asset forfeiture into a civil action.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Estreat". Image Credit.

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