Just as King Pedro loved swift justice when it was clear that the people concerned deserved it, so he strove to ensure that civil cases were not protracted, while fully protecting the rights of each party. He felt that the proctors prolonged their cases unnecessarily and gave occasion to the lodging of deceitful pleas. What was even worse and most strange, they took payment from both parties, helping one against the other.

Consequently, he ordered that in his household and in his entire kingdom there should be no lawyers at all. Furthermore, he made it incumbent upon the judges and special jurisdiction magistrates not to be more biased in favour of one party than of the other. Nor should they be moved by any degree of covetousness and should not accept any gifts, thereby putting justice up for sale. Instead, they should work to resolve the cases quickly so that they were judicially concluded soon and rightfully, as they should be. Whenever he discovered that they were negligent in that respect, he would punish them with physical and pecuniary penalties and he would make them pay the parties for all the losses that might have been suffered as a result.

Having so ordained, the king found out shortly afterwards that one of his appellate judges, whom he greatly trusted, namely Master Gonçalo, an authority on canon law, had accepted a bribe from one of the parties who were in litigation before him and in favour of whom he had delivered his verdict and passed sentence. When the king found this out he was deeply aggrieved and immediately cast him out of favour forever, ordering that both he and his children should be banished to a distance of 10 leagues from wherever he, the king, might be. Yet all those who saw this said that the one from whom the bribe had been taken was right in that lawsuit.

Then the king ordered and prohibited anyone in his household and in his kingdom who had the power to administer justice from accepting any bribe from those who had lawsuits before them. Furthermore, if it were proved that a bribe had been accepted, the magistrate should die and forfeit his estate to the Crown.