This limited actions in the royal courts to property damage worth above 40 shillings, maims, beatings or wounds.
Soon after this Statute was passed, writs of trespass appeared in a stereotyped form alleging "force and arms", or "vi et armis".
Some of the cases brought in vi et armis form probably did not involve force and arms at all and could be regarded as fictions.
Several cases were brought by a procedure of Bill into the King's Bench which did not allege force and arms between the 1340s and 1360s.
The Common Pleas accepted that in such a situation, an allegation of force and arms in a writ would not be appropriate.