Fieldwork in one rural section of the commune of Verrettes, in the Artibonite Valley, between March and June 1972 supports a close comparison of the two officials who settle peasant disputes. The Chef de Section, an appointed local man of modest schooling, hears cases in the open under a palm shelter, in Creole, before an audience that questions witnesses and shapes the outcome. The Justice of the Peace in town is a law graduate who works in French through paid intermediaries at several times the cost. Lahav counts the cases brought to the Chef over four months and the fraction referred onward, finding that gravity of offence, not the rural code, draws the line. The Chef presses compromise; the judge invokes what the law says. Wealthy and educated residents tied to a foreign hospital now bypass him, and so do all land claims. Scarcity of land, in-migration and social differentiation are pulling peasants toward the state courts.