BREVIA FORMATA (Lat.). Certain writs of approved and established form which were granted of course in actions to which they were applicable, and which could not be changed but by consent of the great council of the realm. Bracton, 413 b.
All original writs, without which an action could not anciently be commenced, issued from the chan cery. Many of these were of ancient and esta blished form, and could not be altered; others ad mitted of variation by the clerks according to the circumstances of the case. In obtaining a writ, a preecipe was .issued 1.y the party demandant, di rected to the proper (Meer in chancery, stating the substance of his claim. If a already in exist ence and enrolled upon the Register was found ex actly adapted to the case, it issued as of course (de curer), being depied out by the junior clerks, called cweitors. It none was found, a new writ was prepared by the chancellor and subjected to the decision of the grand council, their assent being presumed in some cases if no objection was made.
In 1250 it was provided that no new writs should issue except by direct command of the king or the council. The clerks, however, it is supposed, still exercised the liberty of adapting the old forms to cases new only in the instance, the council, and its successor (in this respect, at least), parliament, pos sessing the power to make writs new in principle. The strictness with which the common-law courts, to which the writs were returnable, adhered to the ancient form, gave occasion for the passage of the stat. Weetm. 2, c. 24, providing for the formation of new writs. Those writs which were contained in the Register are generally considered as pre-. eminently brevia formats.
Consult 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, 319; 2 id. 203; 1 Spence, Eq. Jur. 226, 239• Wooddeson, Lect.; 8 Coke, Introd. ; 9 id. Introd.; Coke, Litt. 73 b, 304; Bracton, 105 b, 413 b; lib. 2, c. 2, c. 13 ; 3 Term, 63 ; 17 Seig. & R. Penn. 194, 195.