Editing Court of Chancery (section)

=== Further reform ===
[[John Somers, 1st Baron Somers|Lord Somers]], following his dismissal as lord chancellor, introduced the [[Administration of Justice Act 1705]] ([[4 & 5 Ann.]] c. 3) in 1706 which "became the most important act of law reform which the 18th century produced". The act significantly amended the existing law and court procedure, and while most of it was aimed at the common-law courts, it did affect the Chancery. For equity, the act provided that a party trying to have his case dismissed could not do so until he had paid the full costs, rather than the nominal costs that were previously required; at the same time, the reforms the act made to common-law procedure (such as allowing claims to be brought against executors of wills) reduced the need for parties to go to equity for a remedy.<ref>Kerly (1890) p. 173</ref> Legal historian [[Wilfrid Prest]] writes that despite these legislative enactments, the tally of which "begins to look quite impressive", the old problems continued, albeit less frequently; one [[barrister]] of the time claimed that going to the Court with a case worth anything less than £500 was a waste of time.<ref>Horowitz (1996) p. 27</ref>

Under [[Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke|Lord Hardwicke]], Chancery procedure was further reformed with a pair of orders published in 1741 and 1747, which mandated that a claimant who brought his case to court and had it dismissed immediately should pay full costs to the other side, rather than the 40 shillings previously paid, and that parties filing [[bills of review]] should pay £50 for the privilege.<ref name=kerlrev5/> At the same time, a review of the Court's costs and fees was undertaken by a Parliamentary Committee. The Committee reported that fees and costs had increased significantly since the last review under [[Charles I of England|Charles I]], a number of expensive honorary positions had been created, and on many occasions court officers had not known what the correct fees were. At the same time, proceedings had grown to several thousand pages in length, necessitating additional expense. The Committee concluded "that the interest which a great number of officers and clerks have in the proceedings of the Court of Chancery, has been a principal cause of extending bills, answers, pleadings, examinations and other forms and copies of them, to an unnecessary length, to the great delay of justice and the oppression of the subject". They recommended that a list of permissible fees be published and circulated to the court officials.<ref name=kerlrev5>Kerly (1890) p. 178</ref>

The recommendations were not immediately acted on, but in 1743 a list of permissible fees was published, and to cut down on paperwork, no party was required to obtain office copies of proceedings. The permissible fees list contained over 1,000 items, which Kerly describes as "an appalling example of the abuses which the unrestrained farming of the Offices of the Court, and the payment of all officials by fees had developed".<ref>Kerly (1890) p. 179</ref>