Judicial Procedure
There were twelve common law justices of the Court of the King's Bench, Court of Common Pleas, and Court of the Exchequer. The Chief Justices of all of these courts were paid partly from fees paid to the court. The other Justices of these courts were paid completely by salary, which in 1759 was well over 500 pounds per year. These justices were to continue in office even after a king died and could be removed only for good cause upon the address of both houses of Parliament. The officers of these courts were attorneys. There was one justice at Doctors' Commons. The two chancery justices (since Edward I) were the Lord Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls. The salary of the eleven masters of the court of chancery in 1765 was 400 pounds per year. The officers of this court were solicitors.
Appeals from the Exchequer could be made to a court of the King's Bench and Common Pleas combined. Appeals from Common Pleas could be made to the King's Bench. Decisions of the King's Bench and other common law courts could be appealed to Parliament's House of Lords.
The common law courts rode circuit twice a year in five circuits and once a year in the north circuit. So an accused person could spend up to a year in gaol waiting for trial. Few prisoners were granted bail. In each common law court, the law justices in banc would hear demurrers [contentions that the other party was wrong in the law]. No one with an interest in a suit, including the plaintiff and the defendant, could give evidence. There was no power to amend pleadings, so misspelling of the defendant's name, for instance, could result in dismissal of the suit. In 1730, the pleadings and indictments ceased to be in Latin.
In the common law courts, trespass in ejectment served the purposes of most of the actions involving land. Assumpsit covered the whole province of debt, for which compurgation still existed, and much more. Trover more than covered the old province of detinue, for which compurgation still existed. Trespass still served for all cases in which the defendant had been guilty of directly applying force to the plaintiff's body, goods or chattels. Trespass on the case covered miscellaneous torts. Replevin was still used. Covenant remained in use for the enforcement of promises under seal.
Account gradually came under the equity jurisdiction of Chancery. Common law writs of dower are largely superseded by the relief given to the doweress in the courts of equity, where new and valuable rights were given to her and to her personal representatives against the heir and his representatives. The actions of indebitatus assumpsit is being extended to actions upon quasi-contract, in which the element of contract is not required e.g. quantum meruit, where a contract is implied from the facts of the case. The deodand doctrine is still in force.
In Chancery, a plaintiff filed a complaint and interrogatories prepared by counsel. Only in Chancery could there be discovery, such as interrogatories [written questions]. Court officials asked the questions of witnesses without the presence of the parties or their lawyers. Officials wrote down the answers in their own terms. So there was no cross-examination possible. Most decrees took many years to be made.
The ordinary administrative court of first instance is that of one or two Justices of the Peace who issued orders in matters of public safety, public order, public morals, health, the poor, highways, water, fields, forests, fisheries, trade, building, fire, begging, and vagrancy. They examined suspicious persons and issued warrants for the removal of any person likely to become a public charge. The Justice of the Peace also regulated wages, servants, apprentices, and day laborers. In his judicial capacity, he tried all crimes and felonies except treason, though in practice death penalty cases were transferred to the assize justices. The Justices of the Peace of a hundred hold special sessions such as for appointment of parochial officers, highway disputes, and the grant of wine, beer, and spirit licenses. The appointment of overseers of the poor, authorization of parish rates, and reading of the Riot Act to mobs to disperse them, required more than one of the Justices of the Peace of the hundred to participate. All the Justices of the Peace of the county met four times a year at Quarter Sessions to hear appeals from penal sentences, to determine the county rate of tax, to appoint treasurers of the county and governors of the county prison and house of correction, to issue regulations on prices of provisions and on wages, to settle fees of the county officials, to grant licenses for powder-mills and other industries, to hear nuisance complaints such as those against parishes failing to keep their roads in repair, to make regulations for the holding of markets, to hear complaints concerning local government, and to register dissenting chapels. In more and more matters specified by statute, the Quarter Sessions heard appeals from the orders of individual Justices of the Peace instead of common law courts hearing them by writ of certiorari. The writ of certiorari allowed administrative decisions to be reviewed by the common law courts for compliance with law, competency of the court, and interpretation of the administrative law. The writ of habeas corpus appealed administrative decisions to imprison not only after arrest for criminal proceedings, but any coercive measure for enforcing an administrative order. The writ of mandamus was available for enforcing the injunctions of administrative law against towns, corporations, and all other authorities and private persons, where the ordinary punishments were insufficient. Justices of the Peace in rural areas were squires and in towns aldermen.
In 1747, Justices of the Peace were authorized to decide issues between masters and mistresses and their employees who were hired for at least one year. If a servant misbehaved, they could authorize reduction of wage, discharge, and hard labor at a house of Correction up to one month. If a servant was not paid, he could authorize payment of wages up to 10 pounds for an agricultural servant, and up to 5 pounds for an artificer, handicraftsman, miner, collier, keelman, pitman, glassman, potter, or ordinary laborer. Later, tinners and miners were added to the last category. In 1758, employees of less than a year were included.
In 1775, Justices of the Peace were authorized to administer any oath for the purpose of levying penalties.