This reference guidebook provided British attorneys and clerks with a quick reference to the purpose and proper use of a wide array of writs and processes. The wholesale adoption of British statutes and processes that applied to the American environment and “were not repugnant to the constitution” allowed individual states and the United States to avoid the need to draft and enact a comprehensive body of law immediately. Between 1776 and 1784, eleven of the thirteen original states made some provision for the continued use of the common law and British statutes.
