Distress

The word distress has various meanings:-

• Distress (medicine) occurs when an individual cannot adapt to stress. See also fetal distress, respiratory distress.
• Distress is a kind of suffering.
• In Maritime and Aircraft terms, distress is defined as "grave and imminent danger to life or person or vessel or aircraft, needing immediate assistance". Such a state is indicated by a mayday radio call.
• Distress is also used by Search and Rescue services to describe targets in adverse or critical conditions.
• Distress can also refer to the process whereby materials are worn down by time and natural forces.
• Distressing in woodworking and the decorative arts is the art of making furniture and household objects look old.
• In law, distress, or distraint, is the act of seizing goods to compel payment, or the goods thus seized. In English common law, no prior judgment or court order is generally required. The terms distress and distraint are usually treated as being interchangeable, but see [[Distress]].
• Distress is a novel by Greg Egan

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Distress is the term used in English law, and in related Commonwealth jurisdictions, 
to denote the process of seizure of goods to enforce certain liabilities.  
Current English law identifies two broad forms of distress:

- common law distress for arrears of rent or to enforce damages due for trespass by a chattel (distress damage feasant).
- statutory distress for liabilities created by Act of Parliament- for example income, indirect and local taxes. In recent years it has become the practice to use distraint to describe statutory use of the remedy and distress to refer to the common law power.

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