Seigneurial judges helped maintain lordly authority, but this was not their only role. Indeed, fewer than one case in ten directly involved the lord's interests. In a general way the court was responsible to keep the peace in the village and protect both the property and the honor of its clients. The local court continued to play a significant role in administering and policing daily life and local politics in the village. In addition to judicial authority, seigneurial judges had both legislative and executive functions, being responsible to establish norms in the village and to oversee the enforcement of these norms. There were three main ways in which judges intervened without necessarily having been solicited by judicial clients. In probate affairs judges protected the interests of minors and ensured that property went to creditors and heirs. In police matters the court worked to protect village property and rights, kept the peace in the community, and ensured broad participation in local affairs. Finally, in criminal justice courts provided people a means of compensation for theft and redress for physical assaults.

Historians of seigneurial justice have argued paradoxically that by the late eighteenth century the institution was both increasingly moribund and irrelevant and increasingly intrusive and abusive. The importance of seigneurial courts was declining primarily because of state centralization–competition with royal courts and the extension of the authority of the provincial intendants over village affairs.