Only large towns had Lord Mayors. But market judges had a similar function. Ried had 19 councillors. The Outer Council had 12 members and the Inner Council 7 members. One member of the Inner Council was elected as the market judge. Elections were held annually, but often the same man held the position for up to 20 years.

The market judge had to make neutral and objective assessments. So he could not be an innkeeper or landlord. If a landlord was elected as market judge, he had to give up his trade for the period he was in office.

A market judge was assisted in his many tasks by a number of helpers. Monitoring quality standards included inspection of: beer, meat, bread, cloth and silver.

Another task was monitoring standard measurements. Nothing could be sold too light and no-one could be given a bad deal when buying cloth. Market judges were, so to speak, the forerunners of consumer protection and the commercial courts.