Translation:Shulchan Aruch/Choshen Mishpat/124

Paragraph 1- A defendant cannot grant a power of attorney to someone to come to court and respond on his behalf to the plaintiff while he sits at home. In the case of prestigious women where it would be inappropriate for them to come to court, the court would send the judges’ scribes and the women would make their claims in front of them. We would do something similar for a scholar whose trade was Torah and for whom it would be degrading for them to go to court to argue with an ignoramus.