defendant into his Court and to resolve the dispute in the presence of parties. Such writs were issued in the name of the King by the highest royal officials the capitalis justiciarius , later the Chancellor, on payment of a fee by the plaintiff, without hearing the defendant. Many of the early complaints in respect of which the plaintiffs sought writs were substantially similar and very soon the text of the individual writs became standardised with only the name and address of the parties having to be filled in, and they became known to practitioners by short titles: forms of action . Today, we speak of various forms of liabilities as Torts, Contracts, Murder, Bribery, etc. In the early days of the Common Law development there were no such heads of liabilities as Torts, Crimes or Contract. There were only "Forms of Action for TRESPASS". It was upon the person seeking a remedy to identify
43 which FORM OF ACTION best suited his action. Towards the end of 12 century the Chancellor was issuing about 75 established types of writs , a number which grew considerably in the 13th and 14th centuries. They were collected together in semi official collections known as The Registers of Writs , which had a wide circulation among practising lawyers. In this early period, a litigant embarking on litigation had to give very careful consideration to the question which writ suited the substance of his complaint and would best help him pursue it. It was important to make the correct choice,
