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For other uses, see Court of Common Pleas.

The Court of Common Pleas in 1822
The Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, was a common law court in the English legal system. Created to relieve pressure on what later became the Court of King's Bench, the Court of Common Pleas stood as the third highest common law court for over 600 years until its abolition in 1875. For centuries the court served as a place of innovation, with the judges presiding over influential legal cases and the court itself introducing procedural changes which later caught on in other courts. The beginning of the 16th century, however, saw an innovative drought that led to the court being swiftly overtaken by the other common law courts, and by the time the court was abolished much of the court's power, influence and exclusive jurisdiction had been stripped and reassigned to the other common law courts.
Contents
1 History
1.1 Split from the King's court
1.2 Modernising
1.3 Stagnation
1.4 Amalgamation
2 Jurisdiction
3 Structure
4 Influence
5 References
6 Bibliography
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History
The court was created by Henry II after complaints about the unusual number of eyres, as recorded by Abbas Benedictus:
"By the counsel of the wise men of his realm, he selected five men only, two clerks and three laymen, who were all of his own household. And he ordained that these five men should hear all the suits of the realm, and adjudicate upon them, and that they should not depart from the Curia Regis, but should remain there to hear men's suits; provided that if any question arose among them which they could not solve it should be reserved for the King's hearing, and should be settled as seems good to him and the wiser men of the realm"

Henry II of England, creator of the Court of Common Pleas
The creation of the court was undoubtedly designed to relieve case-load pressure on the court Coram Rege (meaning "in the presence of the King", later to develop into the Court of King's Bench) by assigning all common pleas (matters between subject and subject) and mundane cases to a separate court, leaving more difficult litigations for the King and Council. The Court of Common Pleas remained part of the Curia Regis, however, rather than a separate court, and as such was mandated from the beginning to follow the King as he travelled about the realm.
Split from the King's court
The split in the Curia Regis began in 1178, where evidence shows that fines were levied sometimes Coram Rege and sometimes by justices of the Common Bench. However, there were not yet distinct tribunals, as shown by the Curia Regis plea rolls, which remained grouped as one rather than divided into separate rolls for the Common Pleas and King's Bench. Under Richard and John the decision of whether the case was heard Coram Rege or by the justices of the Common Bench often rested simply on the happenstance of the King's presence. In the absence of the King (and therefore the cessation of activity in the Court of King's Bench) the justices of the Common Pleas dealt with all cases, including pleas of the crown. At this point in John's reign there are no separate entities in the Curia Regis, but with the institution of Itinerant Justices and of a separate bench that did not require the presence of the King to sit there is evidence of a growing divide; according to Maitland, "the King's Court of John's reign shows no cleft, though it does show a well-marked line of cleavage".
Despite the original intent of the Common Pleas to following the King as part of the Curia Regis, there is evidence it had a fairly common presence in the Bench at Westminster, which had itself separated from the roaming courts of the Exchequers in the mid 1190s This is noted by Glanvil's treatise Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglia. In Magna Carta (1215), it was provided that the communia placita (common pleas) should be held "in a certain place" and would no longer follow the King. Specifically, the 17th clause held that "Common Pleas should not follow [the King's] court but should be held in some distinct place", establishing the Common Bench as a purely judicial court and separating it from the King's Bench, which was required to follow the King. This was not a complete revolution, nor something novel; the "certain place" was Westminster where the Common Pleas had been located since 1187 and continued to sit until the court's abolition in 1875. Occasionally, the Common Pleas would sit outside London, such as during times of disease, but also moved on other occasions; the monarch reserved the right to select where it would sit, and as such the Court also convened at York in 1337 and 1392, St Albans in 1544 and Hertford in 1581.
The separation of the two courts was abated during the minority reign of Henry III. Since a court could not sit "in the presence of the King" the two were merged to allow both common and crown pleas to be heard. When Henry reached his majority in 1224 the distinction again appeared, arguably to a greater extent, as from 1234 separate Plea rolls were used for each court; De Banco (of the Bench) for the Common Pleas and Coram Rege for the King's Bench. As early as 1237 there are cases specifying the plea of "common pleas" as opposed to "coram rege", showing a growing distinction between the two. The resolution of the Second Barons' War clearly established the Court of Common Pleas as a separate entity to the King's Bench through a renewed recognition of Magna Carta. This was done to solve the problem of the absence of the King; the Curia Regis had been suspended between 1209 and 1214 due to John's frequent foreign trips, leaving no high court. The separation was finalised in 1272 with the appointment of a separate Chief Justice for the Common Pleas. Previously, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas had simply been the most senior or respected of the courts justices rather than an appointed position, and the creation of a Chief Justice to stand with the Chief Justice of the King's Bench and the Chief Baron of the Exchequer firmly entrenched its position as a separate entity. After 1272, the Common Pleas ceased to directly try any criminal cases.
Modernising
The justices of the court in the 12th and early 13th century were usually royal clerks, following Henry II's proclamation that the justices be "of his own household", but in the late 13th century these clerks began to be replaced by professional lawyers; of the 19 justices under Edward II, eight or nine were royal clerks and the rest practicing barristers. The ascent of the barristers is shown by the fact that, other than Hervey de Stanton, appointed Chief Justice in 1326, no clerical judge was appointed after 1316. In 1316 the order of Serjeants-at-law was created, made up of the leading barristers of the Kingdom, and naturally when the selection of royal clerks as justices stopped they instead began to be selected from the order of Serjeants. In time only Serjeants-at-law were allowed to become justices of the Common Bench, and to get around any possible difficulties involving potential justices not part of the order of Serjeants, it became typical to make any prospective justice a Serjeant merely so he could be raised to the bench. The practice of appointing only Serjeants as justices was adopted by the King's Bench in the 14th century and the Exchequer of Pleas in the 16th, and was not removed until the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873. After the 14th century, the Common Pleas appears to have sat in two Benches. One settled oral pleadings which are fully reported in the Year Books, and the other sat with a jury and decided cases.
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