Belgian politicians have been debating the societal importance of notaries for several years. Nowadays, there are increasing calls for liberalising the notarial profession in its current form. Besides a reform of notarial fees, this also implies more competition among notaries themselves and with other intermediaries (lawyers, insurance brokers, estate planners, etc.). Notaries must therefore once again be part of a legal free market. Again, because this idea dates back to the Middle Ages. Unlike in Italy or Spain, notaries in the Low Countries did not always enjoy the same level of success. They were often forced to compete with other institutions or actors who, like themselves, held voluntary or non-contentious jurisdiction and were therefore permitted to ratify legal transactions by issuing an authentic deed. In late medieval Hainaut, local benches of aldermen and comital vassals were traditionally authorised to do so. They dominated this legal free market throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Yet, notaries also had a proper share, although historians have long mistakenly assumed that the notarial profession never gained traction in the former county until after the French Revolution. Nevertheless, these local benches of aldermen, comital vassals, and notaries were not fierce competitors. They managed to consolidate their own market share as they served a more or less distinct target audience. Being men of the cloth themselves, notaries primarily acted on behalf of the clergy. The clientele of comital vassals usually consisted of more wealthy people. Local benches of aldermen were very accessible to a broader segment of the population. This distinction is also somewhat reflected in the surviving source material. Hundreds of chirographs from the late Middle Ages have been preserved from these local benches of aldermen. A chirograph was a sheet of parchment containing multiple copies of the same deed. Afterwards, it was cut into pieces, and each party involved received its own copy, while the court itself also kept one in a coffin. Not only did this, in retrospect, increase the chance of surviving the ravages of time, it also offered a significant advantage for those seeking justice, as the consequences of any loss were therefore minimal. Feudal lords and notaries did not keep copies of the deeds they issued. Compared to all those chirographs, significantly fewer seal charters authenticated by comital vassals and notarial deeds from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have been preserved. What has survived clearly indicates that comital vassals primarily authenticated wills, divisions, and marriage contracts at the request of friends and acquaintances who wanted to protect, divide, or bequeath their assets. Notaries also drew up wills, albeit primarily for other clergymen. They rarely drew up marriage contracts: their peers simply had no need for them. Within the legal free market of late medieval Hainaut, these three intermediaries targeted a well-defined segment of society and met the specific needs of their own clientele.