Other forms: writs of assistance
A writ of assistance is the legal term for a court's written instructions to an officer of the law, such as an order to evict a tenant from their home.
Writ has been used in legal terminology for hundreds of years — it simply means "something written," from the Old English writan, "set down in writing." Assistance refers to the need for a sheriff or other official to assist in carrying out the writ's instructions. So a writ of assistance is a written order requesting assistance from a law officer to collect a tax payment, evict someone, or (in colonial America) to conduct a search.