Foolish people brought before sheriff primarily, or judge (8)
I believe the answer is:
assessor
'judge' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'foolish people brought before sheriff primarily or' is the wordplay.
'foolish people' becomes 'asses' (ass is a kind of person. I am not sure about the 'foolish' bit.**).
'brought before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'primarily' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'sheriff' is 's'.
'asses'+'s'+'or'='ASSESSOR'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for assessor that I've seen before include "Examiner" , "inspector" , "Judge of quality" , "Official to evaluate property" , "Person who tests" .)