The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-04-02 00:00:00

LOCAL JUDICATURES.

The Lord Cis A NCELCOPIB;I;IIiiiea to their lordships a bill
lyir establishing local jurisdictions in England and, Wales,
similar in principle and in the majority of its provisions to that
submitted by him ou two former occasions. Its object was the
establishing, as it were, but experimentally in certain districts
and counties, but ultimately in all the counties and districts,
:liter its adVantages shall have been proved in the experimental
diStricts, local jurisdictions, for the purpose of facilitating the
administration of justice,—and not only facilitating, but bring-
ing it home to the door and placing it within the pecuniary
roach of every subject in the kingdom. These local jurisdies
thins would be so many courts, over which a serjeant-at-law, or
a barrister of not leSs. than ten years' standing, should be ap-
p.sinted to-preside as judge,—dare being taken that those judges
shall he men able and experienced in the law, and of so high a
character, moral and professional, that the King's subjects
should have confidence in their decision.. He proposed to give
them a power to dispose of cases of debt, and those cases of
wrongs which were called actions of tort, in which the redress
wits, pecuniary damages. In his former bid he proposed that
toe judges should take cognizance of all actions for debt where
the sum did not exceed £lOO, but after much consideration,
and frequent communication with the common law commis-
siuners,. he was induced to make ..£2O the maximum sum, at
least for the present, which should he brought, as a matter of
course, before the local judges. He admitted this was a great
restriction, but lie trusted that the other provisions of the bill
would do much towards securing the parties-in-debt actions the
prompt and economical decisions of the local courts. It was to
he understood that the £2O was a compulsory provision—that
is, that the plaintiff in a cause to that amount should possess
toe power of bringing it before the local judges, even though
time defendant should nut be a willing party. Another provision,
which he would advert to immediately, gave the parties in these
debt and tort actions (and, indeed, in all actions) the power of,l
ailimitting themselves to the local tribunal, on both agreeing—
teat is, on the mutual consent of the plaintiff and defendant to
that purpose. Briefly, then, all actions for debt and damages
eader £2O would be tried and decided in these local judicatures.
Their lordships, perhaps, were not aware of the great amount
sumsthe actions for not exceeding £2o,—that
relative proportion which they bore to the aggregate amount of
actions tried in the courts of common law. 'l'his great relative
proportion would appear obvious to them when he stated, that
out of 93,000 affidavits of debt made in the year 1826 (the last
ithich he possessed a return) in the three courts of common
law in Westminster-hall, not less than 30,000, or about one-
third, were for sums under £2O; 64,000 (as we understood the
learned lord) for sums under £5O; and the remainder, for sums
a'iove £5O. Again, out of 890 suits, tried in London and 'Mid-
Ulesex in 1830, not than 330, or More than one-third, were
for sums under £2O; while in the country, judging by the re-
turns from the Oxford circuit for the same year, the proportion
was still greater, there being not less than 160 out of t 340 causes
ter sums under £2O tried in that circuit. lie had stated that
the jurisdiction in cases for £2O would be compulsory. 'He pro-
posed, that when plaintiff and defendant both consented, all
actions, without restriction of amount at issue, might be dis-
posed of by the local judges. Another provision, which he also
expected would work advantageously, was that which would
cable either party in an action for debt to compel the other to
answer upon oath as to the facts of the case: by this, summary
arrangement all the advantages of the rounds:l)o6LS, tedious,
and expensive processes of filing a bill of discovery would be
scured at a cheap rate and promptly.h There was another pro-
vision of this bill to which e bad on a former occasion spe-
cially invited their attention—he meant that which would in-
vest the local judges with an arbitrary power; in fact, invest
the local courts with the character of courts of reconcilement.
By the judges—persons eminently competent from education,
professional habits, and standing—pointing out to the parties
the real grounds of an action—the right and the wrong, they
not only saved the necessity of endless litigation, but vindicated,
the high character of the profession from all imputation of in-
teresteduess and professional disingenuousness. In France
these courts of arbitration had been tried, not, he. was bound to
state, with such extensive results as in Belgium, and far less
,Bari in Denmark and Norway. This reconciling practice was
first. adopted in Denmark in 1795: in the following year the
causes were reduced not less than two-thirds—that is, but one-
third was not disposed of without going into court, by arbi-
tration on the part of the judges. lie. had on a former occa-
sion quoted the returns of two periods of nine years each, in
order to place the beneficial workings Of this reconciling prac-
tice in a strong light to their lordships. In the earlier
period not less than 418,000 out of 721,000 cases were so
disposed of; while in the later. period—in that ending in 1822
—not less than 21,000 out of a total of 31,0('i (two-thirds)
cases_ were ,so settled, without the expense and delay of
formal litigation. The next provision related to the equity
jurisdiction with which he proposed to invest the local juagese
Ile proposed that the local judges shad be ta, all intents and
purposes local masters in Chancery. and local commissi.ners of
bankrupts—that is, tkaLthey shall m their several jurisdictions
and localities exercise all the functions which appertain to the
()dice of master in Chancery, and which appertain to the office
of bankruptcy judge in the new bankrutcy courts, which had,
he was prouu to say, produced the best results, and were held
strong esteem by the mercantile world. Of course local of-
ficial assignees should also be appointed, in order to make the
bankruptcy jurisdiction of the local courts as efficient as it was
universally admitted to be in Loudon. The last object which
he had in view in drawing up the present bill was also very im-
portant. It proposed to relieve debtors who had gone through
their examination; and made a satisfactory disciosure of the
whole state of their affairs, from imprisonment. In this respect
the bid would be au apt precursor to one which he 'understood
was about to be introduced into the other house of Parliament,
which was also founded on the recommendations of the common
law commissioners, and which would go the length of abolish-
ing imprisonment for debt altogether. - The want of proper
measures to obtain full and accurate information respecting the
property of debtors was severely felt. This want was intended
also to be supplied by the bill he had the honour to submit to the
house. Its application would be general, as far as it was prac-
ticable to be so, and it was thought. that it could, with very little
alteration; be applied to almost every case which might occur.
lie thought that the principle- of not allowing the arrest of a
debtor under any pretences except those of refusing to answer
questions relating to the disposal of his property, or of refusing
to surrender it, was just and incontrovertible. Indeed, in no
ease in his (the Lord Chancellor's) opinion, except under cir-
cumstances in which property had been fraudulently obtained,
or negligently managed,—iii short, in no case except where
contumacy or criminality could be shown, ought any debtor to
-lee detained. With regard to this part of the measure, he had
to repeat that it was based on the recommendations contained
in the report of the common law commissioners, and that in
(*awing it up every regiird had been paid to imparting to.ere-
ditors every security which it was possible to extend to them.
In fact, its provisions would be of greater benefit to creditors.