Litchfield enquirer., 1878-01-17
Law Reform.

The delays in the administration of justice in thi state are crying and scandalous It s safe to that in larger counties trials in the superior court are not reached in less than two years. man can cir cumnavigate the globe over and over again in half the time required for the collection of promissory note of a few hundred dollars, where only thes sem blance of defense is made.-GoDernOrs Message.
 The '1aws delay" has been one of the chief of human grievances since there came to be such a thing as law, and class of professional men set apart to expound and enforce it. This delay may not always be an~nnmixed nor an avoidable evil. Nevertheless it is very seri- ous one Its main cause, among us, we believe to be the ''term fees" charged by lawyers, and the travel and attendance fees allowed success full parties in bills of cost. ...-..,-,.
 Term fees of from $8 to $10 are charged by lawyers at the close of each term that case remains in court. Ordinarily the solid basis of the lawyers bill will be from $6O to $80, for term fees. In small cases more is charged for term fees than for all other services. Hence the longer the lawyer delays diseases, especial ly the little ones, the better he is paid. His bill of fees is seriously docked if he hurries his work Now human nature is such that no matter how much courts may ''goad counsel up to their work, so long as clients pay less for haste than they do for delay, they will get more delay than they do haste. No doubt the better lawyers and the larger cases cry for speedy justice; but the mass of the 4OOO civil cases on our court dockets are small ones. The amount involved in most of them is not so large but that many term fees and much nurs- ing is needed to make them profitable. Run ming parallel with the lawyers charge for term fees, comes the winning party's allowance for constructive travel to, and attendance in, court. From the moment case is brought the suc- cessful party gets his fee for travel to each term of court and twenty cents for each days attendance thereat till his case is tried. With four terms of court a year, averaging thirty days each, he will be entitled at the end of two years to $60 for constructive attendance and from $1 to $8 additional for constructive travel The party only goes up to court when his case is reached, but, ill the meantime, his bill for sham travel and sham attendance gives him something wherewith to meet the lawyers bill for sham term service. Hence, as both parties are generally confident of winning, neither is so anxious about delays as might otherwise be the case.
 Now the way to discourage lawyers delays is to abolish term fees, constructive travel and attendance, and every other premium on de- lay. Lawyers, like other employees, should be paid not only for doing their business we'll but for doing it quickly. The slowness of of their work, and the exorbitance of their charges certainly demand the interference of the legislature Now, a man would as soon dispute milliners bill, as bring lawyers bill into court We need a statute utterly abolish ing term fees and limiting lawyers charges. except in case of express agreement.
 We are inclined to favor also the governors recommendation ofsome code of practice. Codes ] of this kind never accomplish what is expect ed of them, but they seem to do something toward alleviating the technicalities of the most technical of professions.
 There is good ground, no doubt, for the l Governors tremendous onslaught on our sys tenn of probate courts. The work they do i: of the poorest, and their blunders are as tht sands on the seashore; but they are convenient of access, and they are cheap. The county probate courts of other states certainly run ul charges much higher than our unsophsticated farmer and merchant judges; and, the travel to and from court is serious item. Still, the governors plan is the only one that will ensure an estate's staying settled.