Equity

Equity is the name given to the set of legal principles, in jurisdictions following the
English common law tradition, which supplement strict rules of law where their application
would operate harshly. In civil legal systems, broad "general clause" allow judges to have similar
leeway in applying the code.

Equity means a venerable group of rights and procedures to provide fairness, unhampered
by the narrow strictures of the old common law or other technical requirements of the law. In
essence courts do the fair thing by court orders such as correction of property lines, taking
possession of assets, imposing a lien, dividing assets, or injunctive relief (ordering a person to do
something) to prevent irreparable damage. The rules of equity arose in England when the strict
limitations of common law would not solve all problems, so the King set up courts of chancery
(equity) to provide remedies through the royal power.

Equity is commonly said to "mitigate the rigor of common law", allowing courts to use
their discretion and apply justice in accordance with natural law.

In its broadest sense, equity is fairness. As a legal system, it is a body of law that
addresses concerns that fall outside the jurisdiction of Common Law. Equity is also used to
describe the money value of property in excess of claims, liens, or mortgages on the property.

The most important remaining distinction between law and equity is the right to a jury
trial in a civil case. Where the plaintiff seeks a remedy of money damages, the plaintiff is entitled
to a jury trial, provided the amount sought exceeds an amount specified by statute. Where the
plaintiff seeks a remedy that is something other than money, the plaintiff is not entitled to a jury
trial. Instead, the case is decided by one judge. If a plaintiff asks for both equitable and monetary
relief, a jury will be allowed to decide the claims that ask for monetary relief, and a judge will
decide the equity claims. Judges are guided by precedent in equity cases, but in the spirit of
equity, they have discretion and can rule contrary to apparent precedent.o

In any court, equity or otherwise, a case or issue may be referred to as equitable. This
generally means that the relief requested by the plaintiff is not a money award. Whether to grant
equitable relief is left to the discretion of the judge. By contrast, other civil actions theoretically
entitle a plaintiff to a prescribed remedy (usually money damages) from either a judge or a jury
if, based on the evidence, the defendant is unable to defeat the plaintiff's case.
 (In a moral sense, that is called equity which is founded, ex oequo et bono, in natural
justice, in honesty, and in right. In an enlarged. legal view, "equity, in its true and genuine
meaning, is the soul and spirit of the law; positive law is construed, and rational law is made by
it. In this, equity is made synonymous with justice; in that, to the true and sound interpretation of
the rule. This equity is justly said to be a supplement to the laws; but it must be directed by
science.)

(But equity has a more restrained and qualified meaning. The remedies for the redress of
wrongs, and for the enforcement of rights, are distinguished into two classes, first, those which
are administered in courts of common law; and, secondly, those which are administered in courts
of equity. Rights which are recognized and protected, and wrongs which are redressed by the
former courts, are called legal rights and legal injuries. Rights which are recognized and
protected, and wrongs which are redressed by the latter courts only, are called equitable rights
and equitable injuries The former are said to be rights and wrongs at common law, and the
remedies, therefore, are remedies at common law; the latter are said to be rights and wrongs in
equity, and the remedies, therefore, are remedies in equity. Equity jurisprudence may, therefore,
properly be said to be that portion of remedial justice which is exclusively administered by a
court of equity, as contradistinguished from that remedial justice, which is exclusively
administered by a court of law)