serjeant at law

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serjeant at law. The order of serjeants at law, dating at least from the early 14th cent., consisted of the leaders of the legal profession and until 1846 they alone had the right to plead cases before the Court of Common Pleas, the most important of the common law courts for medieval civil litigation. The characteristic of their office was the distinctive ‘coif’ and they were members of Serjeants' Inn. It was necessary to be a serjeant at law in order to become a judge in the common law courts, but by the mid-16th cent. the office had declined in importance and was often conferred merely as a preliminary to judicial appointment. The order of serjeants was dissolved in the 19th cent.

Maureen Mulholland

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