chancery
n.n. a place where official legal or government business is handled. It is often used to describe a specific building or department that deals with legal matters.
n. a building or department where legal or governmental business is conducted. Often used in the context of the legal profession or the judiciary.
The lawyers met in the chancery to discuss the case.
The city's chancery handles all the paperwork for new business licenses and property registrations.
The historical chancery served as the primary administrative hub for the kingdom, housing the most sensitive legal documents and the royal seal.
From French chancellerie, from Late Latin cancellaria, from Latin cancellarius, from Latin cancellus (“lattice”) (English chancel), from Latin cancelli (“grating, bars”), from the lattice-work that separated a section of a church or court. See related chancellor and chancellery, and the more distantly related incarcerate (“put behind bars”), from carcer (“prison”). The adverbial form is an allusion to the condition of a person involved in the chancery court.