Section: Analytical

1) In the earliest stages of common law, a party could have their case heard by a judge only upon the payment of a fee to the court, and then only if the case fit into one of the forms for which there existed a writ. At first the number of such formalized cases of action was very small, but judges invented new forms which brought more cases and greater revenues.

Which of the following conclusions is most strongly suggested by the paragraph above?

1. In most early cases, the plaintiff rather than the defendant prevailed.
2. One of the motivating forces for the early expansion in judicial power was economic considerations.
3. The first common law decisions were inconsistent with one another and did not form a coherent body of law.
4. Early judges often decided cases in an arbitrary and haphazard manner.
5. The judiciary at first had greater power than either the legislature or the executive.

The author explains that the expansion of judicial power by increasing the number of causes of action had the effect of filling the judicial coffers. A natural conclusion to be drawn from this information is that the desire for economic gain fueled the expansion.