The common law only has remedies for damages, paid in monetary terms . Let's take for example hypothetically, if a person raped someone then the remedies of monetary sum wouldn't be fair to the person who have been raped. Another deficiency of the common law is that if a particular case which has been brought up to the court but the facts does not fit the existing writ, the case would not be held for trial. Even if the facts can be found in an existing writ, the case will go on but what if the damages given fail to obtain what the plaintiff wants? Then the case will be appealed to the King. "The body of legal principles known as equity evolved partly to overcome these deficiencies. Until comparatively recent times there was a sharp division between common law and equity. In 1848 the state of New York enacted a code of civil procedure that merged law and equity into one jurisdiction. Thenceforth, actions at law and suits in equity were to be administered in the same courts and under the same procedure. The Field code reforms were adopted by most states of the United States, by the federal government, and by the United Kingdom in the Judicature Act of 1873". .
With deficiencies of the common law, equity (fairness or equitable decisions) has emerged amongst the law and till today working along side the common law to remedy the plaintiffs. During the Middle Ages the common law has already have its deficiencies in compensating the plaintiff, therefore the King was being petitioned. But this was too much for just one King to handle, hence the Chancellor helped the King out by hearing those cases in a specially set up court called the Court of Chancery where the law of trust (a branch of the law of equity) applies. There are a few functions of equity, one is that it adapts to the general rules of circumstances, secondly it serves as a supplementary to gaps in the law and also spot the errors in law that is know as rectification.
