mesne process

Mesne process was such process as intervened between the beginning and end of a suit.

A grocer with dealings of £200,000 a year once favoured arrest on the mesne process as favourable to creditors.

The mesne process allowed a creditor to have his debtor arrested and detained before the case came to court and judgement was made on it.

Observations on the proposed Abolition of Imprisonment for Debts on Mesne Process, in a Letter to Sir R. Peel, 1838