The raising of the Clameur is the creation of a temporary injunction which is extended upon registration at the Court and which originated as a means of summoning neighbours and passersby to the aid of a victim of crime.

There were penalties for failure to respond or to join the pursuit, and also for raising the cry inappropriately. If haro was cried in the course of a dispute over goods or real property, that property was regarded as immediately sequestrated. This aspect of the haro, inherent in its nature, lay behind its evolution into a more sophisticated legal instrument. Although it remained a feature of public order and robbery cases, it became a commonplace tactic in civil cases, used to place disputed property in sequestration pending legal judgement of the principal. As such it was a headache for returning Valois partisans after the expulsion of the English. As they walked into the lands of their predecessors, they risked 'contredit a haro' from any local resident who had acquired title in the previous thirty-three years.