assessor

In some jurisdictions, an assessor is a judge's or magistrate's assistant. This is the historical meaning of this word. In common law jurisdictions, assessors are usually non-lawyers who sit together with a judge to provide either expert advice (such as on maritime matters) or guidance on local practices. The use of assessors nowadays is quite rare. In some jurisdictions, such as Fiji, assessors are used in place of juries. An assessor's opinion or view of a case is not binding on a judge. The term "assessor" is also very generally applied to persons appointed to ascertain and fix the value of rates and taxes, and in this sense the word is used in the United States (see Assessor (property)).