Editing Maxims of equity (section)

===Where equities are equal, the law will prevail===
Equity will provide no specific remedies where the parties' causes are to be seen to be equal, or where neither has been wronged.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

The significance of this maxim is that applicants to the [[chancellor]]s often did so because of the formal [[pleading]] of the law courts, and the lack of flexibility they offered to litigants. Law courts and legislature, as lawmakers, through the limits of the substantive law they had created, thus inculcated a certain status quo that affected private conduct, and private ordering of disputes. Equity could alter that status quo, ignoring the clearly imposed limits of legal relief, or legal defences. But courts applying equity are reluctant to do so. This maxim reflects this. If the law firmly denied a [[cause of action]] or suggested equities between the parties were as a matter of policy equal, equity would provide no relief; if the law did provide relief, then the applicant would be obligated to bring a legal, rather than equitable action. This maxim overlaps with the previously mentioned "[[#Equity follows the law|equity follows the law]]."