In Forma Pauperis

In Forma Pauperis ('in the character of a poor person'). Persons are said to sue in forma pauperis when the law allows them to conduct lawsuits without paying fees to court-officers, counsel, or solicitors. In England a statute of Henry VII., affirming the common law, provided that such as would swear themselves not worth £5, except their wearing apparel and the matter in question in the cause, should be exempt when plaintiffs, but not when defendants, from the payment of court-fees, and should be entitled to have counsel and attorney assigned to them by the court without fee. They were further excused from costs when unsuccessful; a privilege which, according to Blackstone, amounted in former times only to the rather uncomfortable alternative of choosing between paying and being whipped. This indulgence, first confined to plaintiffs, was afterwards extended to defendants. It was at first restricted to the Common Law Courts, but afterwards adopted in the practice of the Equity and Probate and Divorce Courts. No one can sue in forma pauperis unless the opinion of counsel on his case, and an affidavit by the party or his solicitor that the same case contains a full statement of the material facts, be produced to the court applied to. A suitor in forma pauperis is not entitled to costs unless by order of the court. In Scotland an Act of 1424 established the poor's roll to secure a like privilege to poor persons there.