Laws, Lawyers, and Punishment in the Victorian Period :: Victorian Era

Laws, Lawyers, and Punishment in the Victorian PeriodThe LawAt the start-off of the 19th century there were 3 types of law in England -Common Law the law of the land(Pool 127), which was built up over many centuries *referred to in social club to determine such cases as the validity of a contract or whether or not someone was guilty of murder3 courts that heard cases -Kings Bench- criminal cases -Eschequer- disputes about money -Common Pleas- disputes between citizens -Equity seen over by the chancery Court designed to give relief from strict decisions made by the special K law-Church Law 4 courts -Court of Arches-Court of the archbishop -Court of Faculties-granted special permission to do things such as hold multiple livings -Consistory Court-handled divorce and wills -Prerogative Court- wills of bishops However, this system of laws changed much throughout the century. The Chancery became merely a joke for there you could not present evidence duri ng trials and Parliament came to view it as necessary for matters of will and divorce to be referred to upstart civil courts instead of the church. In 1873 the 3 common law courts and the Chancery were combined to make the Supreme CourtLawyersThere were two types of lawyers -those who argued in court- barristers, sarjeants, and advocates -those who ready the cases for these lawyers- attorneys, solicitors, proctorsCourtroom lawyers held more prestige especially the barrister, who was often well bornTo become a barrister one had to go to a certain number of dinners at the Inns of Court for 3 years. Then if you were approved of by the older lawyers youd be called to the bar and then could become a barrister. There was no run required.Solicitors had to serve as an in-between between the barristers and their clients. So they were in trade which was less respectful to become solicitor one had to be an apprentice for 5 years to a practicing lawyerPunishmentIn 1800 there were over 200 offences punishable by death including sheep stealing and doing damage to the Westminster Bridge -This bad weather was probably due to the lack of real paid policemen at the time. So when someone was actually caught and convicted they were made an example.