As has been seen, the well-established position of the papal curia as a court of law, especially for ecclesiastics, was but little affected by the existence in England of the Statute of Praemunire and other legislation designed to ensure that no one took abroad cases which were cognisable in the king's courts. Cases which were affected by the often intermittent enforcement of these royal laws were relatively few beside those which were taken to the curia and settled either there or by the appointment of judges-delegate or commissioners to check the accuracy of the statements of the aggrieved party and make a judgement locally. In the fourteenth century some individuals and institutions were given the privilege of having conservators, to whom they could address problems without having to involve themselves in the expense of travelling to Avignon and prosecuting a case there. Unfortunately, precise details of procedure and the legal arguments employed by the parties very rarely survive, although it is clear that the Papacy was involved in a wide range of legal controversies, affecting all parts of the church from great monastic orders down to obscure local clerks.

From the standpoint of the aggrieved party, recourse to papal justice offered, at least in theory, an opportunity to avoid some of the interminable delays inherent in most medieval judicial processes.