Victorian Reform in the Courts of Chancery

By Kelly Wedlake

          In 1852 two different acts were passed to attempt to reform the Court of Chancery and start expediting the hearing process for these non-criminal cases.  Prior to the Suitors in Chancery Relief Act of 1852, it was exceptionally expensive to get a case heard by the Lord Chancellor.  With the reform act passed, the duty of the defendant no longer included paying the salaries of the Lord Chancellor, Chancery officers, and other Chancery judges; these officials would now be paid by salary not derivative of the defendant’s personal funds.  Additionally, the need for the creation of “office copies” of legal documents related to the case was deemed unnecessary and abolished.  In an attempt to fight the corruption of the Court, officials were also formally disallowed from receiving gratitudes from defendants or other persons involved in a case he was hearing.  This Act also helped streamline some of the jobs and processes to getting a case heard at the Court, eliminating some professions to expedite the process further. 

          The Masters in Chancery Abolition Act of 1852 also helped streamline the Court’s processes.  Prior to its passage, the Masters in Chancery and the Judges in the Court of Chancery both were able to hear cases, allowing them to often get tied up between the two parties, and thus delayed excessively.  With the passage of the act, the Masters in Chancery were abolished, making it a requirement for only the Judges in the Court to hear cases.  This act, combined with the Suitors in Chancery Relief Act, helped speed up the Court’s processes exponentially, allowing the cases heard per year to increase to almost 3,000 cases by the 1860’s, plus an additional number of cases being heard and dismissed from the backlog from the previous decade.