Legal Definitions - lay fee

A lay fee refers to a payment made by an individual who is not a member of the clergy or, more broadly, not a professional in a specific field, for a service, privilege, or the use of property. Historically, this term often distinguished payments made to secular authorities or for non-religious purposes from those made to the church or for ecclesiastical matters. In modern usage, it can sometimes refer to a fee paid by a non-professional for a service.

• Example 1 (Historical - Land Use): In medieval England, a farmer might pay a fee to the local baron for the right to graze his livestock on a specific parcel of the baron's land.

  This illustrates a lay fee because it is a payment made by a common person (a layperson) to a secular lord (not a cleric) for a secular privilege (grazing rights), clearly distinct from any religious offerings or tithes paid to the church.

• Example 2 (Historical - Municipal Service): A craftsman in a 17th-century town might pay an annual fee to the municipal government for a license to operate a stall in the town market.

  Here, the fee is a lay fee as it is paid by a non-clerical individual to a secular governmental body for a commercial privilege, separate from any payments related to religious institutions or services.

• Example 3 (Modern - Non-Professional Court Context): An individual representing themselves in a small claims court case pays a filing fee to the court clerk to initiate their legal action.

  This demonstrates a lay fee because it is a payment made by a person without legal training (a layperson in the legal context) directly to a secular court for a procedural service, rather than a fee paid by a professional lawyer on behalf of a client.