Nisi prius

Because of their historical origins, these courts were to some extent in competition, especially as their respective judges and officers lived on the fees deriving from them.

Given that travel to London was an onerous burden during the medieval period, however, the Statute of Westminster II provided in 1285 for trial of fact in civil cases at the local assizes.

[1] The nisi prius record was, before the Judicature Acts, the name of the formal copy of proceedings showing the history of the case up to the time of trial.

Since the Judicature Acts there is no nisi prius record in civil actions, the nearest approach to it being the deposit of copies of the statements of case for the use of the judge, and there is no postea, the certificate of the associate or master as to the result of the trial superseding it.

[1] Nisi prius is mentioned in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera The Mikado, in the song "As Some Day it May Happen" in a list of items that "won't be missed": "And that Nisi Prius nuisance, who just now is rather rife, the judicial humorist—I've got him on the list!