Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Court of Common Pleas

COMMON PLEAS, Court of (Communia Placita), was one of the three common law courts at Westminster- the other two being the Queen s Bench and Exchequer. The jurisdiction of all three, together with that of the Court of Chancery, the Court of Probate and Matrimonal Causes, and the Court of Bankruptcy, is vested in the new High Court of Justice, established by the Judicature Act, 1873. One division of that court is called the Common Pleas division, and there all the business which before the Act was " within the exclusive cognizance of the Court of Common Pleas " must still be transacted.