county

The largest territorial division for local government in state. Its powers and importance vary from state to state, and as well within the given state.

In certain New England states, it exists mainly for judicial administration.

In Louisiana, the equivalent unit is called a parish.

Counties are held in some jurisdictions to be municipal corporations, and are sometimes said to be involuntary municipal corporations. Other cases, seeking to distinguish between the two, hold that counties are agencies or political subdivisions of the state for governmental purposes, and not, like municipal corporations, incorporations of the inhabitants of specified regions for purposes of local government. Counties are also said to be merely quasi corporations. Jefferson County ex rel. Grauman v. Jefferson County Fiscal Court, 274 Ky. 91, 118 S.W.2d 181, 184.

@ body of the county

The county at large, as distinguished from any particular place within it. A county considered as a territorial whole

@ county affairs

Those relating to the county in its organic and corporate capacity and included within its governmental or corporate powers

@ county attorney

Attorney employed by county to represent it in civil matters; also, the prosecuting attorney in many counties

@ county auditor

County official whose responsibility is examination of accounts and financial records of the county

@ county board

The administrative body which governs a county

@ county board of equalization

A body created for the purpose of equalizing values of property subject to taxation

@ county board of supervisors

A body of town and city officers acting for and on behalf of county in such matters as have been turned over to them by law

@ county bonds

Broadly, any bonds issued by county officials to be paid for by a levy on a special taxing district, whether or not coextensive with the county

See also bond

@ county business

All business pertaining to the county as a corporate entity. All business of the county, and any other business of such county connected with or interrelated with the business of any other county properly within the jurisdiction of the county commissioners' court

@ county commissioners

Officers of a county, charged with a variety of administrative and executive duties, but principally with the management of the financial affairs of the county, its police regulations, and its corporate business. Sometimes the local laws give them limited judicial powers. In some states they are called "supervisors"

@ county courts

The powers and jurisdiction of such courts are governed by state constitutions or statutes; some with strictly administrative, or strictly judicial functions, or a combination of both; some with only criminal jurisdiction, or only civil, or both; some have exclusive jurisdictions, others concurrent jurisdiction; such jurisdictional powers may, in addition, be either general or specific.

In England, such are the main civil courts.

See the County Courts Act, 1984; Courts Act, 1971

@ county officers

Those whose general authority and jurisdiction are confined within the limits of the county in which they are appointed, who are appointed in and for a particular county, and whose duties apply only to that county, and through whom the county performs its usual political functions. Public officers who fill a position usually provided for in the organization of counties and county governments, and are selected by the county to represent it continuously and as part of the regular and permanent administration of public power in carrying out certain acts with the performance of which it is charged in behalf of the public

@ county palatine

A term bestowed upon certain counties in England, the lords of which in former times enjoyed especial privileges. They might pardon treasons, murders, and felonies. All writs and indictments ran in their names, as in other counties in the king's; and all offenses were said to be done against their peace, and not, as in other places, contra pacem domini regis. But these privileges have in modern times nearly disappeared after the Judicature Act of 1925, No. 18 and the Courts Act of 1971

@ county powers

Such only as are expressly provided by law or which are necessarily implied from those expressed

@ county property

That which a county is authorized to acquire, hold, and sell

@ county purposes

Those exercised by the county acting as a municipal corporation. As regards the rate of taxation, all purposes for which county taxation may be levied. Test whether a tax is levied for county purposes is whether it is for strictly county uses, for which county or its inhabitants alone would benefit, or is it for a purpose in which entire state is concerned and will profit

@ county road

One which lies wholly within one county, and which is thereby distinguished from a state road, which is a road lying in two or more counties

@ county-seat

A county-seat or county-town is the chief town of a county, where the county buildings and courts are located and the county business transacted

@ county supervisors

See county commissioners, above

@ county tax

Tax exclusively for county purposes, in which state has no sovereign interest or responsibility, and which has no connection with duties of county in its relation to state

@ county-town

The county-seat; the town in which the seat of government of the county is located

@ county warrant

An order or warrant drawn by some duly authorized officer of the county, directed to the county treasurer and directing him to pay out of the funds of the county a designated sum of money to a named individual, or to his order or to bearer.

@ foreign county

Any county having a judicial and municipal organization separate from that of the county where matters arising in the former county are called in question, though both may lie within the same state or country

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