or BARRATRY, in the Law of England, is, according to Blackstone, "the offence of frequently exciting and stirring up suits and quarrels between the lieges, either at law or otherwise. The punishment for this offence, in a common person, is by fine and imprisonment; but if the offender, as is too frequently the case, belongs to the profession of the law, a barrator who is thus able as well as willing to do mischief ought also to be disabled from practising for the future." And hence it is enacted by statute 12th Geo. I. cap. 29, which is made perpetual by the 21st Geo. II. cap 3, "that if any person who has been convicted of common hartery, shall act or practise as an attorney, solicitor, or agent, in any suit or action, the court, upon complaint, shall examine the matter in a summary way, in open court, and, if proved, shall direct the offender to be transported for seven years." To this head, continues the learned commentator, "also may be referred an offence of equal malignity and audaciousness, that of suing another in the name of a fictitious plaintiff, either one not in being at all, or one who is ignorant of the suit. This offence, if committed in any of the king's superior courts, is left, as a high contempt, to be punished at their discretion; but in courts of a lower degree, where the crime is equally pernicious, but the authority of the judges is not equally extensive, it is directed by statute 5th Elizabeth, cap. 2, to be punished by six months' imprisonment, and treble damages to the party injured."

In Scotland the crime of a judge who receives a bribe is called barratry.