From this time forward, no burgess of Lynn shall implead another in any court without licence from the mayor, on pain of 6s.8d fine to the use of the community, to be levied by the common sergeant-at-mace. With the proviso that if the mayor is not able to bring to a settlement a quarrel between burgesses, then he shall allow the plaintiff to pursue his complaint [in court].

[While an ordinance of this type might in most boroughs refer to citizens taking their pleas before external courts, in Lynn the reference is as likely to be to the local courts, since much judicial jurisdiction was in the hands of the Bishop, not the borough. Throughout the fourteenth century, however, we see the mayor and assembly frequently acting as an informal judicial authority to resolve disputes between burgesses.]