We will now consider what provision the laws have made against Barratry and other iniquitous practices of pettyfogging attornies, from whom all the other grievances, either positively or negatively, spring. My lord Coke thus defines a Barrator; _that he is a common mover and maintainer of suits in disturbance of the peace_, _and in taking and detaining the possession of houses_, _lands_, _and goods by false inventions_, _and therefore the indictment against him_ OUGHT _to be in these words_; viz. that he is, COMMUNIOUS MALEFACTOR, CALUMNIATOR, & SEMINATOR LITIUM, & DISCORDIARUM INTER VICINOS SUOS & PACES REGIS PERTURBATOR, &c. &c. which is saying, that a barrator or pettyfogger is the most dangerous oppressor in the law; for he oppresseth the innocent under colour of that law which was made to protect them from oppression; and yet we have 500 of these barrators or pettyfoggers in the courts at Westminster every term, in the full exercise of their depredations, notwithstanding the laws expressly pronounce the following sentence against them; viz. “that they shall be rendered incapable of acting as attornies.” “Attornies must produce receipts from under the hands of council, or other persons receiving fees, if requested by their clients, or they shall not be allowed them; and attornies must give in to their clients a true bill, under their own hand-writing, of all such fees, &c. one month before any action shall be brought against their clients for the same. “No attorney shall delay his client’s suit from any advantage to himself, or demand more than his due fees and disbursements, under pain of a fine and disability to act. “If any attorney shall suffer any other person to prosecute any suit in his name, he shall forfeit 20l. “If any attorney’s bill, upon taxation, be reduced a SIXTH part, he shall pay a penalty of 50l. and be disabled from acting as an attorney. “If any who have been convicted of perjury, forgery, &c. shall practise as an attorney or solicitor in any suit or action, the judge, where such action shall be brought, hath power to transport the offender for seven years, under such pains and penalties as other felons. “If any attorney shall procure a blank warrant from any sheriff, with intent to arrest, before a writ is delivered, he shall be expelled and punished. “Every attorney must enter and file a warrant of attorney in the suit he is employed to prosecute, under the penalty of 10l. “The plaintiff’s attorney must file his in the term he declares, and the defendants his in the term he appears. “And no attorney shall appear or plead a plea, without a warrant from his client.”