Poinding of the ground meaning

In Scots legal practice, poinding of the ground (pronounced “pin-ding”) was a diligence used to enforce a judgment debt by allowing a heritable creditor (a secured creditor holding a standard security over land) to impound the debtor’s corporeal moveable goods found on the land as a precursor to public sale to satisfy the decree. It involved the inventorying and securing of goods before auction (historically by warrant sale). The remedy developed through common law and statutory regulation but has been abolished by the Abolition of Poindings and Warrant Sales (Scotland) Act 2001. Its modern functional equivalents in Scotland are attachment and exceptional attachment orders under the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002, which govern enforcement against moveable goods. The term is specific to Scots law and is not used in England and Wales, Northern Ireland or Ireland, which have distinct enforcement regimes (for example, taking control of goods, sheriff’s execution or judgment enforcement by the sheriff). Today, the expression is chiefly encountered in older case law, historic securities and commentary on Scots law diligence and judgment enforcement.